Press release: For Immediate release
Friday 31st January 2020: Saolta Arts and Galway 2020 are pleased to present The Deepest Shade of Green, an Arts and Health programme for Galway’s European Capital of Culture 2020.
Viriditas – Ceara Conway, 2019
Inspired by a 2006 publication by patients of Merlin Park University Hospital, in which older people shared their knowledge of the Irish landscape and its customs, The Deepest Shade of Green explores the importance of connecting our hospitals with the natural world outside and of listening to and learning from those who use them. Nature and familiar landscapes of the West are brought into the wards, corridors, and waiting rooms of Saolta’s hospitals and used to imaginatively escape the clinical environment.
Newly commissioned works include a song cycle by Ceara Conway, shared as a series of intimate performances for patients and as an album incorporating recordings of hospital equipment, plants, and the tools of sound healers. Deirdre O’Mahony creates an online audio-based artwork using a scripted voiceover and ambient recordings made in Saolta’s catchment areas to evoke the particular character of the West of Ireland. Sarah Fuller and Manuela Corbari collaborate to lead young patients and their families through an enchanting garden of stories, combining puppetry, storytelling, and shadow theatre in a tour of Saolta’s paediatric settings.
Offering to transform the experience of hospital, The Deepest Shade of Green brings Galway 2020’s cultural programme to the people, and to the people who stand to gain most.
Margaret Flannery, Arts Director of Saolta Arts said, “Galway 2020 brings an unprecedented opportunity for our organisation to engage new and diverse approaches in bringing high-quality arts experiences to the wards, corridors, and waiting rooms of Saolta’s hospitals. The Deepest Shade of Green programme can be accessed by the public but, importantly, it brings cultural experiences to the people who aren’t able to access other Galway 2020 events through ill health and enhance their experience of hospital”.
Speaking about Saolta Arts and Galway 2020 programme, Galway 2020 Producer Kate Howard said, “Ireland is a leader in understanding the benefits of art in healthcare settings. The work of Saolta Arts and artists commissioned for the Deepest Shade of Green as part of the programme for Galway 2020 reflect this and the importance of connecting our hospitals and patients with the natural world outside, transforming experiences for those who need it the most.”
The Deepest Shade of Green runs for the whole of 2020, during the first season of the year-long programme IMBOLC (Feb – April), the healing properties of plants is explored in the exhibition West of Sumer and new work by acclaimed Irish singer and visual artist Ceara Conway, who has composed a song cycle in response to an extended process of engagement at Galway University Hospitals. Viriditas takes the listener on a journey through songs inspired by conversations with staff and patients, and recordings of hospital equipment, singing plants, and tools used by sound healers. Interweaving newly composed contemporary songs with traditional European healing songs and rythms from Georgia and Italy, it is available online at saoltaarts.com from 17th February. Viriditas will also be presented as a series of intimate performances by Ceara Conway with Anna Mullarkey for patients at Galway University Hospitals between 16th February – 21st February.
In partnership with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, and the Chelsea Physic Garden, West of Sumer presents the work of artists interested in the collection, classification, control, and reproduction of the natural world. The exhibition at University Hospital Galway presents botanical art and photography of plants associated with modern medicine, traditional herbal remedies, and the global journey of plants used in the pharmaceutical industry – from field, to lab, to factory. The show includes work by the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society (UK), Tom Molloy (IE), Sophia Rosamund Praeger (IE), Diana Scherer (DE/NL), Françoise Sergy (CH/UK) and Lydia Shackleton (IE).
During the second season of the Galway 2020 programme BEALTAINE (May – July) the programme will launch a newly commissioned audio-based artwork by renowned Irish artist Deirdre O’Mahony. POST_ uses a scripted voiceover and ambient recordings made in regions served by the Saolta University Health Care Group to evoke the particular character of the West of Ireland and transpose listeners from their situation. POST_ will be accessible online at saoltaarts.com from 2nd July to coincide with the launch of Call if you are passing…, an exhibition presenting examples of the artist’s socially engaged practice in rural contexts in Ireland, Denmark, and the USA. The exhibition at University Hospital Galway draws attention to our relationship with landscape and the shared experience of rural communities on both sides of the Atlantic. It includes pertinent examples from the Saolta Arts Participative Arts Programme to reveal patients’ insights into place, memory, and home.
For younger audiences, theatre practitioners Sarah Fuller and Manuela Corbari transform the bed areas of young patients in a series of immersive and intimate bedside performances. Incorporating puppetry, storytelling, walkabout theatre, shadow play and soundscapes, A Bird at My Window and Other Stories was developed through an extended process of engagement with paediatric patients and their families at University Hospital Galway where a parent said, “The experience was magical. My little girl forgot where she was.” It will tour to the five Paediatric Units of Saolta University Health Care Group during SAMHAIN. Documentation of the project will feature in A Deeper Shade of Green, the programme’s closing exhibition on the UHG Arts Corridor, offering a privileged peek at the artists’ transformations of the clinical setting. During the final two seasons of the Galway 2020 programme LUGHNASA (Aug – Oct) and SAMHAIN (Nov – Jan)this exhibition looks at the benefits of integrating nature with our healthcare buildings.
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About Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture
Galway is European Capital of Culture in 2020. As one of the largest cultural events in the world the programme comprises over 1,900 events across 154 projects with local national, European and international artists and cultural organisations. From theatre, music and sport, to poetry, film, visual art and much more Galway 2020 promises to deliver a year of thrilling, life-enhancing experiences through culture and the arts. The ambitious programme takes place across the villages, towns, islands and the city of Galway, and in recognition of Ireland’s historic traditions, is based around the four fire seasons of Ireland’s ancient Celtic calendar; Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain.
About Saolta Arts
Saolta Arts runs the west of Ireland’s leading Arts and Health programme as a means of improving the hospital experience for patients, staff and visitors. We believe that access to the arts promotes well-being and enhances the hospital environment.
Initiated in early 2003 as an Arts Committee, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust was officially established as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status in 2007 providing a multi-disciplinary programme of events and activities at Galway’s public hospitals, including exhibitions, participative workshops, music, theatre and poetry. With the creation of Saolta University Health Care Group in 2015, we became the dedicated arts service for the largest geographic hospital group in Ireland, providing an outreach service to our sister hospitals since 2016. Relaunched as Saolta Arts in August 2019 by our patron Mrs. Sabina Higgins, our expanded remit aims to support arts programming at seven hospital sites across five counties, with view to developing a fully inclusive Arts and Health service for University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park University Hospital, Mayo University Hospital, Roscommon University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital, Sligo University Hospital and Letterkenny University Hospital.
Contact:
Heather Mackey, Ace Media PR, 087 7495713, acemediapr@gmail.com
Margaret Flannery, Saolta Arts, 091 544 979, Margaret.Flannery@hse.ie
Marielle MacLeman, Saolta Arts, 0871189057, Marielle.Macleman@hse.ie