Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Galway International Arts festival, in conjunction with Galway Culture Company, has awarded €10,000 to Leon Butler, Peter Power and Aisling Murray for Dwelling, an immersive XR Dance performance and digital art installation that the trio are currently developing. The money was granted as part of the Festival’s 2024 Elevate programme and followed and open call for applications. Total funding of €30,000 was available in this open call and applications to the value of €150,000 were received, according to GIAF’s Artistic Director, Paul Fahy.

Dwelling blends real and digital worlds, using AI tracking to create poetic places that allow the audience to pass through space, time and memory to experience the lives of others. It’s billed as “an audience-driven interactive experience and performance . . . exploring new definitions of space, personal interactivity, and collective memory as we strive to redefine and preserve the most basic nature of human experiences of isolation, loneliness, connection, belonging and catharsis”.

There were four bursaries of €5,000. One went to Bernard (Bernie) McDonagh, Winnie Mongan and Winnie Stokes to help them explore aspects of Traveller culture. McDonagh, Mongan and Stokes are trainee creative producers from a Traveller background who work for Galway Traveller Movement. Since 2023 they have partnered with the arts organisation Promenade and the Misléor Festival of Nomadic Cultures to produce various events.

They will use this bursary to create a project exploring different artforms which have strong tradition in the Traveller community, including music, oral storytelling, painting and craft.  Stories from the older Traveller community, at risk of getting lost, will be recorded as part of this project.

Pictured: A scene from Dwelling, a show that blends real and digital worlds. It received €10,000 under the scheme.