In her final year as Artistic Director of the Clonmel Junction Arts Festival, Cliona Maher explains why it’s so important to the people of the Tipperary
Tell me about Clonmel Junction Arts Festival and how you got involved with it in the first place?
The very first Junction festival came about almost by accident! Galloglass Theatre Company were based on Clonmel, and instead of premiering a new summer show, were reviving a production of Gulliver’s Travels for a Dublin residency. To avoid disappointing our loyal audiences, we decided to have a weeklong celebration of touring theatre with live music post show, and workshops during the day. It was a huge success, and the annual festival was born, becoming more multidisciplinary over the years. I worked on the very first Junction, and then moved to France for many years. I took up the Artistic Director position in 2019 after moving back to Clonmel with my family in 2017.
What would you like people to know about the festival, why should they visit?
Over the past six years, we’ve been focusing on local stories, and themes that resonate in Clonmel. By placing this work against national and international pieces, you get a special slant on the festival theme, and I think it’s this deep-rooted creative placemaking that makes the festival stand out. Our stories are unique, and they’re told by, with and for Clonmel, but will resonate authentically with visitors.
In a town like Clonmel, there are giants like Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, whose national and international legacy is enormous, but whose local legacy is partly that of claiming a space for the arts and for creativity amongst our people. With the idea of looking back at legacy, the natural pairing is to look forward with our next generation artists, to look at how art is made now and in the future, as well as looking at who is making it. I’m very excited to bring the Legacy X Next programme to our Clonmel audiences this year, and am looking forward to 10 days of entertainment, illumination and creativity at this year’s Junction Festival.
What are you most looking forward to at the festival this year?
It’s like asking who is my favourite child! As a multidisciplinary arts festival, there are lots of different art forms so it’s difficult to compare a multi-venue art exhibition like John D Kelly’s Visual Emotion, with a one-night-only concert performance like Reflections, Revisited or Eklego which have been curated specially for the festival.
How important is the festival to the town of Clonmel?
The town is an enigma – it’s large, wealthy, and has both a very vibrant arts community, and a curious, engaged audience base. However, we are completely underserved by infrastructure and are hamstrung by the lack of professional venues for exhibition and performance across all the art forms. The festival has been a focal point for both artists and audiences for the last 24 years, and a lot of recent arts initiatives started out during the festival. But I’d prefer if there were better opportunities for our large population to have access to the arts year round.
Your sister Roisín also runs a festival – Finding a Voice – which takes place in March. What is it about event management that appeals to you both?
I think we’re both driven by our love of the arts, particularly live performance, and want to share that with audiences. It’s definitely not a love of organisation, and the headaches that come with event management!
This is your last year as director with the festival – what’s next for you?
A holiday! We went straight from the festival into rehearsals for our large scale Decade of Centenaries outdoor production, From Out The Land, so I’m looking forward to a nice, relaxing pause before I consider my next step. This job has been both very intense but very broad in remit, and I think I’d like to take time to nurture a specific project rather than juggling many in my next role.
The Clonmel Junction Arts Festival runs from 28 June to 7 July and continues deep dive into local stories and themes with its theme of Legacy X Next.
