21 April 2021
Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality are set to host ‘The Art of Witness’, as part of the Mother Tongue Festival 2021. The Art of Witness will be a presentation of creative practice and an online panel discussion exploring themes of language, identity and culture on the island of Ireland. In conjunction with the Annual Mother Tongues Arts Festival 2021, Smashing Times are looking forward for the event set to take place on Friday 14 May 2021 at 7.30pm.
Mother Tongues Arts Festival 2021 will have a programme of over 40 artists, and primarily will take place online, as has been the case for some time during the ongoing pandemic. Mother Tongue believe this will allow participation at the heart of their programme with the Walk A While initiative.
The Mother Tongues Festival remains the largest Irish Festival celebrating linguistic diversity throughout the arts. Until 2020, the weekend-long Festival took place on the 21st of February to celebrate its founding organisation’s first birthday and UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day.
This year, the programme will take place throughout May 2021 in conjunction with World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The Festival will feature a dynamic programme of art workshops, school visits, film screenings, and a series of events available in 20 different languages. To learn more about the 2021 Mother Tongues Festival and to get your tickets, visit their site here.
Among the artists and panel members for Smashing Times’ The Art of Witness presentation include are award-winning writer Féilim James and Noelle AcAlinden to name but a few. Féilim has won several awards including the Arts of Council of Ireland Literature Bursary Award and Professional Development Award and an Arts Bursary from Dublin City Arts Office. The aforementioned Noelle McAlinden is a visual artist, creative advisor, mental health campaigner, curator and cultural broker. There will be Richard Edgar; an Author and Historian and Kwasie Boyce, the Artistic Director of M.A.D. Youth Theatre, Dundalk.
Smashing Times explain that “Across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Europe and beyond citizens of all backgrounds and cultures are finding ways to come together to create spaces where culture works to strengthen social ties”.
Smashing Times will work with Mother Tongue 2021 in order to bring together a panel of artists, creatives and communities from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to share artworks and generate dialogue on how the arts can be used to explore themes of language, identity and culture in relation to equality and rights and to imagine alternative ways of living and engaging with others in understanding, trust and peace on the island of Ireland and beyond.
Smashing Times are a resident Carmichael organisation. You can check out their site here. To keep up to date with the social media platforms, check out their Facebook here, and their Twitter here.
Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality is dedicated to the promotion, study and practice of the arts, human rights, climate justice and gender equality. Smashing Times is an international award-winning organisation working with artists, citizens and communities to create collaborative art practice in local, national, European and international settings.
Their mission is to lead the development of the arts to promote and advance equality and human rights and to connect citizens to the arts, human rights, climate justice and gender equality.
