Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Dance and sculpture workshops as well as an in-person reading for children with author Patricia Forde take place in Galway as part of the 11th annual Mental Health Art and Culture Festival which runs through Sunday, Jan. 16, online and in locations across the country.

This hybrid festival aims to create a space in which to challenge mental health stigma through the arts and conversation, according to Maria Fleming, CEO of First Fortnight.

“The past two years have opened the conversation about mental health in new ways and there is a welcome realization of our fragility and resilience when it comes to our mental health,” she says.

However, the crucial question for First Fortnight is how the conversation has changed, if at all. There is more to do and we are up to the challenge.

About 40% of the festival’s more than 50 events are online and accessible to audiences across the country. This is in addition to the in-person activities.

Next Monday, January 10, award-winning children’s author Patricia Forde – formerly of the Baboró ​​and Galway Arts Festival – will read her picture book, Imagine! at the Charlie Byrne Bookstore on Middle Street. It is the story of a little girl who tells her fears to her grandmother and where her grandmother learns to make scary things fun by using her imagination. It’s a free event.

Next Thursday, January 13, at noon, Booker author Sam Thompson will read an excerpt from his book, Wolfstongue. This online event, titled Neurodiversity in Children’s Books, will also include a question-and-answer session.

Galway-based sculptor Glenn Gibson, who attended the previous First Fortnight festival, will return this year to host community workshops

This series of wire sculpture workshops, One Tree, aims to bring people together and will take place at the Art In Mind Gallery at Liosbán Business Park in Galway on Thursday and Friday January 13 and 14, 2019 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. days.

To find out more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune digital publishing app

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition app to access Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from the Apple App Store, or HERE to get the Android version from Google Play.

Or buy the digital edition for PC, Mac or laptop at Pagesuite HERE.

Download the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app hosts everything that is happening in the City and County of Galway. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information about what’s happening in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from the Apple App Store, or HERE to get the Android version from Google Play.