Welcome to all of you who will come to our workshops and our talks, who will wander around our exhibitions chuckling – it’s OK to laugh aloud in fact, this isn’t your everyday sort of exhibition – and who will take part in our live drawing events which mostly happen in pubs for some reason.
Welcome, to everyone who enjoys cartoons. You can just drop in and enjoy the jokes, or you can pick up a pen and participate.
And a special welcome to the poor cartoonists of many countries who were tricked into coming here and drawing – and in many cases talking – for the amusement of Ireland in general and Galway in particular. Thank you, you lovely people. We will try to make it worth your while.
Festivities begin at 5:30pm tonight with the opening of our exhibition of fresh cartoons from all around the world, in the new PorterShed 2 (where the Connacht Tribune used to be). We’ll be having beers and hugging old friends and laughing at all sorts of things, so please come along.
And then the events begin in earnest. There are art workshops and talks which will be somehow both instructive and stupidly funny, from the likes of Ed Steckley (MAD magazine), Cristina Sampaio (SpamCartoons) and Martin Rowson (The Guardian), not to mention some of Ireland’s finest such as Graeme Keyes and Harry Burton. There will be expert caricaturists wandering around, making fun of people’s faces. There will be shows all about the city, plus related events in schools and in the Pálás cinema, as well as on Inis Oírr.
If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the programme. Feel free to download it to your phone:
