CREATE TOGETHER | PROGRAM 2022
CREATE TOGETHER, CIACLA’S 2022 program, is a series of creative events that showcases and promotes Contemporary Art and Culture from leading Irish and Los Angeles based artists working in the visual arts, film, theatre, music and literature. The program aims to bring our community together and connect with new audiences through a series of innovative creative platforms.
The program outlined below includes New Episodes of our Round Table Culture Chats, the launch of our Creative Network, the return of our Irish Short Film Reel Series as part of our Irish Film Showcase, the publication of our debut illustrative book, The Time Before Now literature event, A Night in November featuring Alan Smyth, a Papermaking Workshop, Comedy with Emma Pyne, Music Showcase featuring Hannah Crowley & Triona O'Neill and supporting a range of artist activities through additional Collaborative Events.
Program Overview
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Culture Chats
Now Streaming
GLÓR
Music Event | March 2022
The New Frontier
Music Event | March 2022
Irish Film Showcase
Film Screenings | April 2022
Time Before Now
Literature Event | April 2022
All My Sons
Theatre | April 2022
Papermaking Workshop
Workshop | April 2022
A Night In November
Theatre | May 2022
Irish Contemporaries {i}
Visual Art | Nov 2022
Confessions of a Catholic Nymphomaniac
Theatre | Dec 2022
Creative Network
MONTHLY GET TOGETHERS - monthly
The CIACLA Creative Network is a monthly in-person networking opportunity for Irish & Irish American Artists, Actors, Filmmakers, Dancers, Writers, and Creatives living in California. This new network aims to support the Irish Creative community in Los Angeles and throughout California through community events, opportunities for showcasing their work, and connections to industry professionals living and working in LA and across California through monthly meet ups including live talks and webinars.
Culture Chats
New episodes Streaming Now
A round table discussion that intertwines cultural and social conversations with performance while delving into the minds of some of the leading contemporary voices in Irish culture.Through an accessible and free flowing conversation, the panel of artists, musicians, writers and actors discuss their creative processes, artistic drives, performative anxieties and triumphs while intercutting performances and examples of their work.
The New Frontier
CSU San Bernardino and CSU Fullerton - March 9th & 24th 2022
The New Frontier: An Atomic Age Jazz Opera, Grammy-winning Composer Jack Van Zandt, poet-librettist Jill Freeman and soprano Stacey Fraser team up with theater director Terry Donovan Smith, an ensemble led by Grammy-winning pianist Nadia Shpachenko, and a group of theater production specialists, to create a multimedia tragicomic musical theater work about aspects of life against the backdrop of the atomic bomb and the daily Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation during the 1950s and 60s. Van Zandt and Freeman, whose school years spanned the late 1950s through the 60s, drew on their childhood memories of the era along with meticulous research in formulating the libretto and musical content.
March 9 at CSU Fullerton (Cabaret style concert performance)
March 24 CSU San Bernardino (staged opera production).
More info coming soon....
Music Showcase
Feat TRIONA O'NEILL, HANNAH CROWLEY, RUA & SHELBY CLAIRE - Saturday 12th March 2022
A St. Patrick's Day celebration of contemporary Irish music showcasing the best of rising Irish Talent in L.A. The afternoon was a collection of Irish music, culture and craic, just as St. Patrick intended
Irish Film Showcase
Celebrating irish film - April 14th 2022
On 14th April 2022, CIACLA hosted the Irish Film Showcase at Laemmle Monica Film Center Santa Monica.
The showcase featured the third year of The Irish Short Reel Series showcasing a curated selection of award winning contemporary Irish Short Films, ranging from drama, comedy, animation and contemporary storytelling; produced by some of Ireland's most exciting filmmakers! The series included the premiere of CIACLA produced short films ‘180 Degrees’ and ‘Maggie’ and a section of the feature film ‘What Is Going To Happen Next?
The Time Before Now
Celebrating Irish Literature - April 14th 2022
A literature event of live readings, poetry film promoting Irish poetry, The Time Before Now was an in person literature event presented by Calypso Editions, MART and CIACLA, focusing on Irish & Irish-American writers whose work deals with memory. Held on April 14th at at Laemmle Monica Film Center Santa Monica.
Writers from across Ireland and the USA were invited to submit proposed works to be showcased and performed during a live literature event. Reading from new and innovative work, these writers will challenge, expand, and offer ways into our own understanding of memory.
All My Sons
Stella Adler academy of acting & Theatre - April 2022
All My Sons is a play by Arthur Miller about successful businessman, Joe Keller, who once narrowly avoided financial ruin by shipping cracked machine parts to the military. He blames his business partner and builds an empire, but eventually his crime comes back to haunt him. Irish Actress Jenn McGuirk plays the role of Kate Keller in this iconic American story.
Papermaking Workshop
with sheila mcmullin - April 16th, 2022
This hands-on papermaking workshop was held on April 16th 2022 in partnership with Green Wisdom's Festival. The workshop introduced crafters to the DIY world of papermaking without the expensive and inaccessible facilities that prohibit crafters from the process. Using locally scavenged materials, recycled papers, herbs, and seeds, crafters made their own paper to take home and be used for writing, drawing, painting, letterpress, or as greeting cards and wedding invitations. In a collaborative makerspace, Sheila lead crafters through the papermaking process and offer techniques and strategies for DIY papermaking at home. The emphasis was on creative problem solving and use of reusable materials to reduce landfill waste. {Photo image: Lindsey Segundo}
A Night in November
Various Locations in Los Angeles - may 2022
The sectarian prejudices of 1994 Northern Ireland are challenged in an arena even more impassioned than politics: football. This brilliant and piercingly funny one-man play demonstrates how tolerance is possible even in the face of our most entrenched rivalries. InHouse Theatre proudly presents A Night In November as a live, immersive storytelling experience, staged in various Irish pubs throughout Los Angeles. InHouse company member Alan Smyth gives an electrifying performance of this compelling, comic, and profoundly hopeful story from Irish playwright Marie Jones.
THE IRISH CONTEMPORARIES {i} EXHIBITION
BUILDING BRIDGES ART EXCHANGE, SANTA MONICA - November 2022
The Irish Contemporaries Exhibition {i} took place in November in partnership with MART Gallery & Studios Dublin, curated by Ciara Scanlan and Matthew Nevin, the exhibition showcased contemporary artists living in the island of Ireland and Irish artists abroad, in Los Angeles, including a performance by Live Artist Francis Fay.
Confessions of a Catholic Nymphomaniac
Santa Monica Playhouse - December 2022
On December 4th we held a very special staged reading for VIP guests and industry professionals of Confessions of a Catholic Nymphomaniac by Emmay Pyne. The reading was preceded by a CIACLA Creative Network Meetup and followed by a short Q&A and drinks reception.
CIACLA is delighted to announce our Creative Support Platform - a continous call out for applications of support to the Los Angeles community of artists, curators, actors, musicians, filmmakers and all Irish & Irish American creatives working in LA or California.
Throughout the year CIACLA will collaborate with a collection of partner artists and organisations who will be showcasing contemporary Irish arts programming in Los Angeles.
We collaborate with partners seeking to devise new events in partnership with us and support them through our creative platforms. We also support Local Los Angeles based community groups seeking partners to promote their activities.
Let's Create Together
“As we are all going through this strange moment of uncertainty together, we are forced to grow accustomed to a new way of living, presented with a space between our previous lives and the pressures of an unknown future. The CIACLA team have curated this exciting program full of engaging work to address this disoriented juncture and bring communities together, while also creating opportunities for artists to showcase their work and provide our audience with exciting new ways to engage with Contemporary Irish Culture.” ~ Matthew Nevin CIACLA’s Executive Director
This program has been kindly supported by Mart Gallery & Studios, Culture Ireland, Screen Ireland and Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme.