Founded in 1977 by a regional arts committee led by Brendan Flynn, Clifden Community Arts Week is the longest running community arts festival in Ireland. Now in its 34th year, the festival boasts an extensive programme with high profile acts performing year after year. It has come a long way from its humble start with a small programme which took up one A4 sheet page 33 years ago. Now a hugely ambitious production, this year’s festival includes performances from the RTE Vanburgh Quartet, the Irish Chamber Orchestra and readings from presidential candidate Michael D Higgins and Dermot Healy to name but a few. The continued success of the Clifden Community Arts Festival is due to the ambition, vision and dedication of the Clifden community.
The second-level community school remains at the heart of the Clifden Community Arts Week, where a vision was nurtured and became a reality. It was in this school that a stream of artists, writers and poets began arriving from 1974, expanding the school walls and literally tearing strips off the prescribed syllabus. Fr Killian Kearney was the school principal from 1974 to 1983 and a guiding light for the foundation of the festival, allocating an afternoon a week to creative studies.
The festival has grown organically from one generation to another, with the entire Clifden community working together, sharing a vision, passion and ambition. The Clifden Community Arts Festival fulfils a need in a community with teachers, parents and children all working together to make it a success year after year. Clifden is the home of the arts with many painters and artists of the past being inspired by the Connemara landscape, music and energy which create an inner peace of mind. World-celebrated author Kazuo Ishiguro, who has received four nominations for the Man Booker Prize once described the festival as “Ireland’s best kept secret!”
The 34thClifden Community Arts Festival will run from the 15th-25th of September 2011 with more information available on www.clifdenartsweek.ie
