The official guide to the Clifden Arts Festival Archive
The Clifden Arts Festival
Founded in 1977, the Clifden Arts Festival is the longest running community arts festival in Ireland. It has grown over time from a small community event to one of international importance. This achievement is due to the vision, passion and ambition of founder Brendan Flynn, his fellow committee members and the entire Clifden community.
Brendan Flynn, Founder
The Archive comes to UCD
Building Connections and Enriching Education
Tell us what you think?
We are interested in hearing your comments and thoughts about this archive we are building. If you have additional information or resources related to past Clifden Arts Festivals, and would be happy to make them available to our archive, please get in touch with us. Thank you very much. Clifden Arts Festival Archive@UCD.
Building an Archive – What’s Involved
Working in Partnership
Clifden Arts Festival and UCD are proud to be working in partnership to preserve this digital archive, and continue to build it up over time. We aim to capture and make available, only where permission is granted by the artists, as many of the Clifden Arts Festival’s activities and events as possible.
The UCD Digital Library provides the specialist expertise needed to preserve this important archive for future generations, for scholars and for enthusiasts at home and abroad.
This project, which is unique in its form and extent, does not serve any commercial purpose. Read more here.
Will you work with us?
In order to make this archive widely available, we are reaching out to writers / artists who have worked with the festival over the last 10 – 15 years, seeking permission to make older recordings available to the public, thus ensuring preservation and access to future generations.
Where possible we will provide you with a copy of your recording. We will ask permission for the right to place recordings, either in their entirety or an excerpt, into the UCD Special Collections YouTube Channel, the UCD Digital Library, with links provided on the Clifden Arts Festival webpage.
We will also be asking artists and writers performing in future festival events to allow their performances be recorded and added to the Clifden Arts Festival Archive@UCD.
Our approach to collecting materials for the archive will be reviewed regularly, taking on board advice from the artists and writers, Clifden Arts Festival Committee, and UCD Library.
Clifden Arts Festival Archive Form (PDF): Information & Permission to Record
Clifden Arts Festival Archive Form (PDF): Permission to Archive & make Publicly Available
Bernhard Sanders – creator of the digital archive
The man behind the scenes, building the digital archive over the last 10 years, is Bernhard Sanders. A retired sound engineer and freelance photographer based in Cologne, Germany, he has been visiting the Clifden Festival since the late 1980s.
Bernhard Sanders
From 1996, he began to make occasional recordings of Festival events, and build up a photographic record. Plans to build a digital archive emerged in 2008 following discussions between Sanders, Brendan Flynn (Artistic Director/ founder of the Clifden Arts Festival), and John Durning (Visual Arts Curator).
Sanders is assisted in his work by the tireless efforts of the other photographers and participants, who record as many performances as possible each year. Then back in Germany over the winter months, Sanders edits the videos, collates the photographs, and adds them to the archive. When asked what draws him back annually, he speaks of the ‘fascinating environment of Clifden and Connemara, the friendliness of the people, and the quality of the events’.
Preserving Digital Archives – UCD Digital Library
UCD Library provides national leadership in capturing and preserving digital expressions of our culture and our heritage.
Digital archives require a high level of the expertise to assure their preservation and continuing availability for scholars and enthusiasts into the future. The quality of the Clifden Arts Festival digital archive, and the care with which they have been edited and archived, makes it possible to place this collection within the UCD Digital Library.
The UCD Digital Library holds the “Data Seal of Approval”, an accreditation, recognised by the European Commission, which ensures that a sustainable infrastructure is provided for these cultural heritage collections. The expertise of Library staff helps to ensure that these materials are available for teaching and research both at home and abroad, increasing public engagement and creating new opportunities for artists.
The UCD Digital Library holds the “Data Seal of Approval”, an accreditation, recognised by the European Commission, which ensures that a sustainable infrastructure is provided for these cultural heritage collections. The expertise of Library staff helps to ensure that these materials are available for teaching and research both at home and abroad, increasing public engagement and creating new opportunities for artists.