8-9 October 2015: ‘Designing commemoration’ conference, University of Limerick & Trinity College Dublin

On 8-9 October 2015 the University of Limerick and Trinity College Dublin co-hosted a conference entitled Designing Commemoration: Performance, Process and Participation. The conference was held in UL’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance on 8 October and in TCD’s Long Room Hub on 9 October 2015. This multidisciplinary conference explored issues and ideas around commemoration and creativity. While many of the debates and discussions on the issue of commemoration have focused on the political and social meanings of commemoration, this conference explored the role of artists within the commemorative process, exploring the ways in which artists and creative arts practitioners respond the challenge of commemoration, and the ways in which they explore issues of commemoration, shared memory and the presence of the past in their own work.

This conference was presented by the MA Festive Arts programme at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick  and TRIARC: the Irish Art Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin, with support from the MA Ritual Chant and Song at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. This conference was also supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Keynote speakers included Professor Ronald Grimes (Director of Ritual Studies International and Professor Emeritus of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University), Noeline Kavanagh (Artistic Director, Macnas) and Dr. Sighle Bhreathnach Lynch (art historian and author). Click here for full details of the conference programme.