Galway's first ever design-led boutique hotel, The Dean Galway has come on board as GIAF Festival Partner for the third year in a row, continuing its association with the GIAF Festival Gallery on William Street!
The festival, which opened this week, returns to the Festival Gallery again this year, with a showcase of work by sculptor Patricia Piccinini, one of Australia’s most acclaimed artists, who has received worldwide attention for her startling sculptures, installations and digital environments.
Piccinini represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and, in 2016, her exhibition ComCiência was named the most popular contemporary art exhibition in the world by The Art Newspaper.
The incredible body of work being presented at GIAF 2024, titled We Travel Together, includes a site-specific installation, created especially for the Festival. Piccinini’s previous Festival show in 2015 drew record crowds.
Piccinini’s work examines the connections between science, nature, art and the care. Her sculptures are familiar yet fantastical, a possible future species from a strange new world, charming and slightly unsettling creatures and mutants who blur the boundary between people and the animals we share the world with.
Photo caption: The Dean Galway General Manager Cian O’Broin pictured with We Travel Together artist Patricia Piccinini at the Festival Gallery on William Street to mark The Dean Galway’s support of the festival. Photo by Andrew Downes for GIAF.
Galway International Arts Festival takes place until 28 July and includes a packed programme of theatre, circus, music, visual art, street art and spectacle, comedy and talks, that looks at who we are and what concerns us. The Festival includes 7 world premieres, a new visual arts Festival commission, the biggest music line-up to date and continues to present exciting new theatre.
GIAF is also further developing its sustainability and EDI initiatives and, as part of The Dean Galway’s support of the Festival Gallery this year, the partners have again created a special Festival Gallery audio guide that will make the exhibit more accessible to all.
The Dean Galway launched in April 2022, bringing a fresh and vibrant offering to Galway City. Part of The Dean family, which came to life in 2014 on Dublin’s Harcourt Street and has since opened in Cork as well as Galway, the hotel offers boutique, design led rooms, rooftop dining from Sophie’s Restaurant, world class fitness facilities with POWER Gym, casual dining with Elephant & Castle, and a collection of art curated to highlight local and emerging Irish artists.
The Dean has been a strong supporter of the arts since its creation. As well as showcasing an art collection of over 1,000 pieces of Irish visual art, The Dean is the official hospitality partner to The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and with continued support of the Galway International Arts Festival further adds to the brand’s long term cultural strategy to ensure a tangible return to the arts ecosystem through meaningful and practical investment.
Cian O’Broin, General Manager of The Dean, Galway said: "The Dean Galway is proud to once again support the Festival Gallery at this year’s Galway International Arts Festival following the success of our inaugural partnership in 2022. We are committed to nurturing, supporting and celebrating the creative soul of Galway and its arts community, which GIAF champion and highlight on the world stage."
John Crumlish, CEO, Galway International Arts Festival said: "The Festival Gallery plays an important role in GIAF’s desire to create as much access to the arts as possible for the community. Over the last number of years, The Dean Galway Hotel’s support of the Festival and, in particular, its continuing partnership with us on the Festival Gallery is a very significant factor in the success of that strategy."
Galway International Arts Festival also acknowledges the support of its principal funding agencies, The Arts Council and Fáilte Ireland, Galway City Council, its Education Partner University of Galway and Drinks Partner Heineken®.
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