Hedge School Doolin
Hedge School
Artistry- Imagination- Community
Doolin 25th-27th January 2025
Hedge School is for anyone who feels the need to create, anyone who creates for that simple inherent joy, regardless of reward. We invite you all to Doolin, to a magical setting for unique collaborations and intimate encounters between artist and audience, master & student. Hedge School is a not-for-profit, artist-run festival that puts the artist front and centre. 2022’s programme will focus on the crossover between writing, music & film. Our ongoing goal is to bring arts out of the cities and out of boardrooms and growing a community of creatives on the west coast. Doolin’s location on the edge of the world is reflected in our ethos, we’re committed to art on the edge, embracing diversity and inclusivity, inviting everyone, from all walks of life to come and experience, interact and play in our wild world. Our goals as a festival are to- -Create the conditions in which innovation, experimentation and risk can thrive -work collaboratively based on shared values -foster a community to support artists on the West Coast -show respect to artists & art workers, their labour and ideas -provide a platform for under-represented artists. Hedge School will incorporate concerts, readings, art installations & exhibitions, performance, panel discussions, interviews, workshops & seminars, film premieres, comedy & debate. Hedge School will not finish on the Sunday of the festival. We aim to run events from our base in Hotel Doolin throughout the year. Hedge School Productions will publish original collaborative material in record, book and film format to build audiences for under-represented artists.
Our festival will take place on the weekend preceding Imbolc – The Celtic Festival marking the beginning of Spring and Re-Birth. The past two years have been a dark time for the Arts in Ireland and globally. We hope that with the coming of the Celtic Spring we will welcome back the light, not just in the length of the days but also in our lives and the Arts.
Hedge School Organiser Donal Minihane says "From as early as the first half of the last century, when the Bohemian set of George Bernard Shaw, JM Synge, Dylan Thomas & Oliver St. John Gogarty first discovered Doolin to its hippy heydey during the 60s & 70s as the centre of the folk-music revival and to this very day, Doolin has always offered "a non-judgemental environment, a free-and-easy come-day-go-day existence" for musicians, writers and artists. The artistic community have been devastated by the events of recent years and now more than ever, in an economy and society that undervalues artisitic expression independent events like Hedge School are needed to encourage, nurture and support the work of Ireland's artists. We hope that for some, Hedge School will be seen as a small ray of light finally breaking through the endless cloud"
Hedge School Organiser Simon O' Reilly says "Our goal is to support and foster artistic re-birth. We aim to create the conditions in which innovation, experimentation and risk can thrive, where artists, their labour and ideas are respected and where under-represented artists are given a platform to flourish creatively."
We want to bring the Arts out of cities and boardrooms and to nurture and support a community of creatives along the West Coast. Doolin’s location at the edge of the Earth is reflected in our ethos. We are committed to Art on the Edge. We embrace diversity and inclusivity and invite everyone from all walks of life to experience, interact and play in our wild world.
