The Festival
PhotoIreland Festival
Vibrant, friendly, all-inclusive:
a festival for all to enjoy.
PhotoIreland Festival is Ireland’s first international festival of Photography and Image Culture, and the only festival dedicated to Photography in Ireland. It celebrates Ireland’s photographic talents – oftentimes only recognised abroad – as well as bringing international practitioners and artists to Ireland. The festival highlights, promotes and elevates Photography in Ireland – conferring on it the importance it duly deserves.
In 2010, we estimated a total of 45,000 visitors to the festival, and media exposure to over 1.5 million in this our first year. Supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport, we engaged more than 60 organisations to develop 35 exhibitions in 35 venues, offering the work of a total of 250 photographers around the city of Dublin. We also had the kind support of many leading cultural organisations and individuals, most noticeably Dublin City Council, The Irish Times, LUAS, and ‘Dragon’s Den’ investor Bobby Kerr.
This festival is not only innovative because there has never been an International Photographic Festival in Ireland. It is innovative in its participative approach:
- For the people: As a festival that is vibrant, friendly, and all-inclusive, we offer free events for widely different audiences, and exhibitions from the amateur to the professional. We are mindful about catering for our audiences, and to developing new ones.
- By the people: We have engaged with public and private organisations, both well-established and start-ups, with the aim of facilitating an arena where these groups can put forward their own projects – whether co-curated with our organisation or independent.
- With the people: There is a strong educational component, to promote an understanding of visual language, with workshops and talks both technical and theoretical. Rather than developing one-person awards, for 2010 we experimented with developing an innovation environment, the Open Call: we offered a group award for 20 photographers, to promote a collective learning experience, where networking was essential.
PhotoIreland fills an enormous gap in Irish Culture, and aims to become a nationwide festival.
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