1 September 2021
Smashing Times are delighted to announce details of the upcoming Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival for 2021.
The Carmichael resident organisation have worked alongside Front Line Defenders and have been in partnership with Amnesty International, Fighting Words, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, National Women’s Council of Ireland, Trócaire, and Poetry Ireland to bring the 10 day festival to the masses.
This large collaboration intends to shine a light on ‘the extraordinary work of human rights defenders in Ireland and around the world, past and present, and the role of the arts and artists in promoting human rights today’.
Key Details
Running from Friday 15 October to Sunday 24 October 2021, the festival will be curated by Mary Moynihan, Artistic Director of Smashing Times, and the human rights curator is Laura O’Leary, of Front Line Defenders. Keeping in line with the changing societal landscape of Covid-19, this year’s festival will contain both online and in-person events, subject to current government and health advice guidelines.
The theme of this year’s festival is Hope, Courage and Resilience: The Story Continues. Here, the festival will look to celebrate human rights and linking the arts to civil society, active citizenship and politics through a series of art, literature, documentaries, poetry, and so much more.
Highlights
Over 10 days there will be many highlights from the Dublin Arts & Human Rights Festival, but some stand out; State of the Art: Nation State as Both Violator and Protector of Human Rights Visual Art Exhibition, and The Art of W/Rights: A Literary Carnival of Arts and Rights, to name but a few likely highlights.
Presented in the dlr Mill Theatre, Dundrum, State of the Art will be an art exhibition looking to showcase artworks created by artists from across the island of Ireland who have worked together on the State of the Art: Nation State as Both Violator and Protector of Human Rights project.
Meanwhile, The Art of W/Rights: A Literary Carnival of Arts and Rights will be series of new artworks will be presented in Rathfarnham Castle Park. Here, you can expect to see something rather unique, a ‘gathering space’, for the public to come together to highlight stories of care and compassion and to act as a catalyst to generate creative conversations on visions of a better world.
There will be an opportunity for the public to tell who has inspired them, a person from the past or present who has inspired or shaped them in some way and who has promoted equality, compassion and rights in your life and the lives of others. You can submit your answer here.
Contact Notes
For all the most up to date information on the event and the work of our friends from Smashing Times you can check out their website here. You can follow their social media channels by clicking the following links; Facebook, Twitter.