Exciting line-up of artists planned for Trinity Arts Centre, Castlerea

Exciting line-up of artists planned for Trinity Arts Centre

Trinity Arts Centre, the beautifully restored 200-year-old former Church of Ireland in Castlerea, is playing host to an exciting line-up of artists for the next four months.

Sean Keane, Eleanor Shanley, Mike Hanrahan, and Seamus O’Rourke are part of the quality line-up organised by the Castlerea Community Arts Group for theTrinity Arts Centre.

Attracting these big names, for what is a very distinctive live performance venue, is a clear statement of intent from the community arts group, who want to promote and the develop the venue as one that will attract the cream of Ireland’s musicians, artists, and producers.

Trinity Arts Centre is already a hive of activity, catering for all manner of classes, a stage school, and meetings. There will be an exhibition by three local artists as part of Culture Night on Friday, September 22nd (See https://www.facebook.com/trinityarts/ for full details).

The venue has also hosted live performances from Castlerea Drama Group and other visiting drama groups, and now there is a concerted effort to develop a programme of events throughout the year in order to promote the uniqueness of the place to a wider audience.

“Trinity Arts Centre has natural acoustics and it’s a very intimate setting for any kind of a performance, be it for 50 or 250 people. We also have plans to have a schedule of events for spring and summer of next year. So, what we’re trying to do now is to develop it and build it as a performance space,” explained Breege Callaghan, Chairperson of Castlerea Community Arts Group.

Like the impressive renovation of the church, which has taken approximately fifteen years to complete and lots of hard work, the latest objective to market the centre to a wider audience is completely driven by local volunteers – and that makes the ongoing work by organisers even more unique. Apart from Breege, the team includes Maureen Claffey, treasurer; Mary Molloy, secretary; a board of directors and Peter Dolan, who is caretaker at the centre.

The September line-up of events will also feature the council-led initiative, ‘Cultural Companions’, aimed at providing increased opportunities for older people wishing to engage with the local arts and culture scene.

Breege explains that the Cultural Companions event in October, running from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., at the Trinity Arts Centre comprises a session of musicians such as the fiddler Sean Regan who has worked with big names such as Finbarr Furey.

This event will open up Trinity Arts Centre for earlier evening performances.

Full details of all these top events - including Sean Keane, Eleanor Shanley, Mike Hanrahan, and Seamus O’Rourke - taking place at Trinity Arts Centre can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/trinityarts/