Barry’s Tea presents Recession: Opportunity Knocks
New spaces, collectives and initiatives are emerging all over the city.This town hall style evening brings together the people who are spotting opportunities and shaping Dublin’s cultural fabric. Hear the ideas, experiences and ways in which a generation address a recession as a fresh opportunity. Chaired by journalist Sinead Gleeson, the panel will include: Trevor O’Shea (Bodytonic/Airbound), BRENB (Offset / Always Read the Small Print), Dylan Haskins (Exchange / Hideaway House), Kate Nolan (Re-Dress), Peter O’Brien (Dartmouth Sq/Edenbee), Conor Bereen (Coppinger Row) and Kaethe Burt-O’Dea (Sitric Compost Community Garden).

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 9th, 7:00pm at the Metro Bosco tent on Georges Dock as part of Dublin’s Fringe Festival.

Not to be missed, illustrator Maira Kalman has another great visual essay on the NY Times, this time on Benjamin Franklin. And in case you missed it, above is her TED talk from 2007.

The National Gallery of Ireland has been given a wonderful gift of of ten superb original colour illustrations by Harry Clarke (1889-1931) which were executed for Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Fairy Tales’, published in 1916 by Harrap & Co. in London. The jewel-like colour illustrations, all in pristine condition, have been in a private collection since the 1920s. They were recently purchased and presented as a gift to the National Gallery by Lochlann and Brenda Quinn.
As part of the Gallery’s Summer Lecture series celebrating the acquisition of these wonderful illustrations, PJ Lynch will be giving a talk on “The Technique of Illustrating Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘Fairy Tales’”, with particular regard to the Clarke paintings of course on Tuesday 16th June 10.30am.
Talks are free and take place in the National Gallery’s lecture theatre. No booking required. For information, contact Education: 01 663 3505
So if any of you are up and about in Dublin early next Tuesday, do come along.

CandyCollective & The Illustrators Guild of Ireland proudly present a special Illustration SweetTalk featuring presentations by…

Ros Shiers [London, UK], Jonathan McHugh [Belfast, NI] and SCAMP’s very own Steve Simpson [Dublin, IRL]

This one-off event will be held this Thursday, April 30th 2009 at the Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2. Doors @ 7pm.

More info on event and speakers can be found on the CandyCollective website. Get your tickets fast as these events sell out quick. Admission is €10 plus booking fee. Tickets are available here.

French graphic artist Stéphane Heuet is giving a talk in Cork City Library on Thursday 23rd April, at 4.30pm. Heuet works in so-called bandes dessinées (basically French graphic novels), and recently he’s been adapting the works of Proust into graphic format. It should be an interesting discussion of his work, graphic novels in general, etc., and there’ll also be a booksigning session afterwards, in which, rumour has it, Heuet will do caricatures of the signees. (more…)

Walker Books in association with the Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines are presenting ‘The Story in the Picture’ on Sat 25th April in the College in Rathmines, 9.30am – 4.30pm. Patrick Benson, Bruce Ingman and Niamh Sharkey will be taking part. Deirdre McDermott and Lizzie Spratt from Walker Books will also give unique insights into the design department of Walker Books. Deirdre is the senior Picture book designer and Lizzie will talk specifically about developing graphic novels. To reserve a place email vcoghlan@cice.ie or phone 01 4970033

The first  part (of 2) of a recording of graphic novelist Chris Ware’s conference in Angouleme Comics festival in France, in February 2009. (more…)