Artists' Generosity and Arts Council Refusal of Festival Funding

national | arts and media | press release Saturday January 08, 2011 14:35 by Fred Johnston - The Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude - Galway westernwriters at eircom dot net 087.2178138

Lady Augusta Gregory intervenes at Gort, Co. Galway

A Dublin-based poet and writer has purchased and donated a painting by a major Irish artist to the Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scribhneoirí Chaitlín Maude - to support the end-of-March Forge at Gort literary festival.

"I was both delighted and humbled by the support of these two artists," said the Centre's manager, Fred Johnston, "as well as by the support shown in recent days by writers from Northern Ireland, such as Martin Mooney. One Irish poet has already donated financial support to us. Not for the first time, writers and artists are supporting the Centre where the Arts Council refuses to. This latest contribution, which is more than generous, is a tribute to Gort and to the worth of our little festival there."
Poet and writer Rosemarie Rowley purchased a painting of Lady Augusta Gregory by painter Tom Byrne and immediately donated it to the Centre. Byrne himself is delighted with the support his work will give to the Gort festival. Rowley's poetry publications include The Broken Pledge (Dublin, Tallaght, 1985); The Sea of Affliction (Dublin, Rowan Tree Press, 1987); Flight into Reality (Rowan Tree Press, 1989), a long poem written terza rima and issued, read by the poet, on audio cassette in 1996; Hot Cinquefoil Star (Rowan Tree Press, 2002); and In Memory of Her (Rowan Tree Presss, 2004). Her pamphlets include Freedom and Censorship (1989), which influenced the Campaign against Pornography and Censorship in the UK; and with John Haughton and Cairde na Coille. eds, Seeing the Wood and the Trees (Dublin, Forest Friends Ireland, 2003).She has represented Ireland in the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 1997, where she read translations of women bards of the west of Ireland. She has won two international awards in Scotland for epic poetry (1995 and 1996), an American Library of Poetry award in 1997, and her first short story won an Image Award.
Since June of 2009, Tom Byrne has been running the Greenlane Gallery, Paris. In recent years, Byrne, whose work is also on show at Dublin's Apollo Gallery and who has an exhibition running currently in Dublin at The United Arts Club in aid of the Club's restoration fund, has been represented at Art Expo New York, Art Sydney Australia and the Beijing Art Salon China. Byrne's “Fluidism” reflects temporary corporal forms as well as the eternal quantum foam of the universe, both forever in flux. He has painted a number of works on Irish writers, including W.B.Yeats and Samuel Beckett. Each time his pictures are seen, in a different day, light or mood, fresh elements rise to the surface ensuring greatness and longevity to his work.
It is intended to 'auction' the painting of Lady Gregory during the festival, which is scheduled for the end of March. Sponsors for the festival are welcome. Inquiries can be made to westernwriters@eircom.net and 087.2178138.