Culture & The Arts

Music, theatre, stories, song and dance have always played a central part in the everyday life of Cork. And it’s with much pride that Corkonians regard their city as the Cultural Capital of Ireland.

Indeed, in 2005, Cork was nominated European Capital of Culture – and the culture-fest is still going on.

Per head of population, Cork has more theatres, concert halls, galleries and arts centres than any other Irish city. Among its thriving theatres are Cork Opera House, Cork Arts Theatre, The Firkin Crane Centre, The Crane Lane Theatre, The Granary Theatre and The Everyman Palace.

The visual arts play their role in the cultural life of the city too with a number of excellent art galleries including Crawford Municipal Art Gallery in Emmet Place, the Lewis Glucksman Gallery at University College Cork on Western Road, the Triskel Arts Centre in Tobin Street, the Fenton Art Gallery on Wandesford Quay, the Form Gallery in Paul Street and the Lavit Gallery in Fr Mathew Street.

A new multi-million-euro Cork School of Music opened in 2007 with a 500-seat auditorium and a music-IT lab. It also houses the largest single collection of Steinway pianos in the world.

And Cork’s cultural life has an eye to the future too. Over the next few years, an impressive new events centre with a capacity of over 5,000 people will be built along the banks of the River Lee as part of the Cork Docklands Regeneration Project.

The cultural influence extends out into every corner of Cork County – there’s hardly a town or a village without its own gallery or arts centre. Charleville in North Cork has its Schoolyard Theatre Company which has performed four world amateur drama premiers to great acclaim over the past 11 years; Clonakilty has its lively, Craic na Coillte Teo; Castletownbere has its Community Arts Society and holds an annual arts festival, and Ballyvourney in one of Cork’s Gaeltacht areas has a regional cultural centre for the traditional and contemporary arts.