“One of our ambitions is to be a bit disruptive and have things where they’re not normally held, whether that’s on a beach or in a field”
Galway 2020 has been heavily criticised by the city’s arts community, has lost several senior personnel and is facing a huge budget shortfall. But replacement chief executive Patricia Philbin is adamant that everything is back on track
It has been called a “fiasco”. A “debacle”. Last summer, Macnas founder and ‘gran señor’ of the Galway arts scene Páraic Breathnach said events at Galway 2020 were a “total embarrassment to the arts community”, while poet Rita Ann Higgins likened them to Dante’s nine circles of hell in a poem slamming cuts to artists’ projects.
There was dancing in thronged streets when Galway won the coveted European Capital of Culture bid to ...
