Is Folklore the Future?
That’s the theme for this year’s DCCI Irish Design Week, bringing a national programme of events from Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) to locations around the country.
Taking place across Ireland from 13th - 17th November 2023 DCCI is curating and hosting a series of events focusing on Ireland’s rich heritage of folklore and storytelling.
The majority of the events are free, you can check out the full listing here along with all ticket information.
From glass blowing to Oscar nominated animations, this year’s Irish Design Week promises to be one to remember.
Events include an exhibition celebrating Kilkenny based Cartoon Saloon and the studio’s most successful and Oscar nominated animations, all of which draw on Irish folklore – The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers.
This will be the first time they have been exhibited together and you can find this exhibition at Gallery 2, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny at 2:00pm, Friday November 17th 2023.
Next door, in Gallery 1, at the same time will be the Holger Strøm – Iqlight 50th Anniversary Exhibition.
This exhibition travels to Irish Design Week from Bornholm in Denmark. It celebrates the invention of the IQlight by Holger Strøm while he was working in Kilkenny Design Workshops in 1973.
IQlight is a self-assembly lighting system, made up of interlocking quadrilaterals. Lamp shades of various shapes and sizes can be constructed by linking together the identical modules, allowing the end user to build anything from the classical sphere to a completely unique design.
That evening you can check out, Blown Away, at Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle at 7pm.
Following their residency and a series of public demonstrations in Jerpoint Glass for DCCI Irish Design week, John Sleepy Moran and MiNHi England, contestants from Netflix's hit series Blown Away, join Jerpoint Glass owner, Rory Leadbetter, for an intimate chat about all things glass!
Earlier on in the week on Tuesday, 14th November Back to the Future of the GAA - by Design promises to be a panel discussion worth checking out.
Moderated by Eileen Dunne, the keynote speakers on the day will discuss the role of design in GAA past, present and the future.
They include well-known GAA and design names such as Paul Galvin, Dermot O’Shea, Eamonn O’Sullivan, Sean Torpey, Jim Dunne and Siobhan Doyle.
On Thursday November 16th 2023, you can learn about the properties of human hair and biomaterials and how they could be used as an alternative to synthetic materials.
NeoMateria Exhibition and Panel Discussion at NCAD, Thomas Street, Dublin 1 at 5pm will delve into the themes explored in the NeoMateria exhibition and workshops: 'BioMaterials to Wear?' and 'Rethinking human hair.'
This discussion will be led by Robert D. Thompson, Materfad’s Scientific Director, where he will tap into the invaluable insights of companies to shed light on the future possibilities of these materials and knowledge gathered over the course of the three-day workshops.
