Interview with Grainne Millar, Founder of Culture Night

Culture Night has become a new tradition in Dublin, a night where all the galleries, museums and exhibits open their doors to the public and culture leaks out onto the streets. Although it has become a European phenomenon, it is still relatively novel in Dublin, where this will be its third year. Promising to expend tenfold on it’s previous assaults, this September Culture Night promises to be bigger than ever. We spoke with founder Grainne Millar on how she launched the night in Dublin, and what this year has to offer.

 

 

What is your history with Culture Night?

 

I’m the head of cultural development, I organised the first culture night back in 2006 and we started on a very small scale.  We wanted to connect the cultural organisations in Temple Bar to a wider cultural community in the city. Mainly with an aim for the public to get a better appreciation of the cities culture, but also to get a sense of cultural democracy and entitlement.  It started of with 40 organisations and it wasn’t really a culture “night”, as everywhere closed at 8 o’clock. It was however enormously successful, with 40, 000 people attending.

 

 

So who are these organisations that are taking part?

 

Well some of the main ones include The National Gallery, The National Museum, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, and all of the cultural organisations in Temple Bar. Lots of smaller artist galleries and studios throughout the city are also taking part. We were all quite shocked just how successful the night was, although in saying that we had seen how successful culture nights had been in other cities throughout Europe. Copenhagen and Paris have both had over a million people attend their culture nights in the past so I knew the model would work. All it needed was the support of the culture community plus public interest.

Based on the first year we’ve continued to grow the event. Last year we had the first national initiative where we extended outside Dublin. We had 80 organisations in Dublin, and they stayed open until 11 o’clock in some instances. The diversity really spread out as well. We had the Botanical Gardens, The Science Gallery, and Stephen’s Green stayed open late. It was a very all-encompassing event for the public.

 

 

 

So last year it was a national Event?

 

Yes, we launched it last year in Galway, Cork and Limerick, and on the strength of that we’re expanding it to a total of 11 towns and cities around the country. We have 120 organisations taking part in Dublin, this year focusing on public spaces-bring the arts out to the streets. 

 

 

 

And will the organisations be opening late into the night this year?

 

Yes, in Dublin we have a number of venues opening until Midnight, but it varies across the country because some venues, particularly museums, have restrictions and have to be closed by a certain time

 

 

 

So what types of events will we expect to see in these various Galleries and Museums?

 

There is a huge diversity and it’s up to every city or town to organise different events. Dancehouse for example, organise various dance workshops, playing with different types of dance- reggae/Hip-Hop etc. The Gaiety School Of Acting are providing 3 different acting workshops for kids, while Filmbase in Temple bar are organising animation workshops for kids where they can write, direct and even star in their own film.

 

 

 

What have been highlights in previous Culture Nights?

 

I think, apart from the workshops, families loved participating in the culture, rather than just looking at it. Culture Night gave the opportunity for people to meet artists and interact with them, which is something one might take for granted working with artists on an everyday basis. Many artists opened up their studio doors and allowed people to see how they worked and get a glimpse at how their art is created. Last year The Book Of Kells broke it’s record for the most amount of people seeing it in one day-over 5 000 people.

 

 

 

Have you seen a ripple effect in previous years? Where after Culture Night awareness and attendance for galleries and other festivals was raised? 

 

We don’t have that information yet, though we have been carrying out surveys in the last two years and we’ve found out that a huge number of people that come into Culture Night are visiting places for the first time. Some of them are of course “culture vultures” but they’re trying different things which is great.

 

 

 

And what about yourself? What event will you be attending on the night itself?

 

Well the last few years I’ve just enjoyed walking around the streets to capture the atmosphere, but one of the things I’d like to do this year is go to the zoological building in Trinity College where they are opening up their building and exhibiting a number of skeletons and other animal exhibits.   If I was in Tralee however I would love to take part in their record-breaking attempt for the longest ever line dance in the world. That sounds very exciting.

 

 

Culture Night takes place all over Ireland on September 25^th