Opening of Five Lamps Arts Festival
19 April 2012
by Cllr Joe Costello
I am honoured to be here today to open the 2012 Five Lamps Arts Festival. The Five Lamps Arts Festival is now in its fifth year, and it is going from strength to strength. I remember attending an event when the festival was just beginning, and I am delighted to see the progress being made.
Art can enrich our lives and make us see the world from a different perspective. It can shake our complacency; kick us in the gut; make us question our accepted views. Music can evoke powerful emotions; a picture can make us see something in a new way; a play can make us laugh or make us cry. Or art can be simply something beautiful that makes us pause for thought.
And art is for everyone. By exposing young people to art, we can help develop creativity and self-expression. And while fostering creativity is important in itself, it is also essential to personal and economic development.
The impact of art can be as diverse as the Five Lamps Festival’s impressive program. From classic theatre, such as Romeo and Juliet, to a comic retelling of a classic, such as Lady Macbeth. From modern art exploring science and scientific research, to an exhibition of photos on Dublin Dock workers that looks at a way of life that no longer exists. From traditional music to opera. And much more in between. The Five Lamps Arts Festival has something that should be of interest to just about everyone.
I would particularly like to mention Marino College of Further Education and Blake Hodkinson for initiating this festival and thank Festival Director Roisin Lonergan for all her efforts in organising the festival. I would also like to thank all the volunteers, without whom the festival would not be possible. It is wonderful to see people giving up their time and effort to help their community.
I am sure the festival will continue to prosper and grow, and I hope you all have an enjoyable, enlightening and successful time for the rest of the festival.