Irish Arts Center Reveals $3M Naming Gift And Spring 2024 Season Programming

Irish Arts Center (IAC) has revealed another major milestone in its establishment as one of New York's most vital cultural institutions: the naming of its state-of-the-art, flexible theater as the JL Greene Theatre at Irish Arts Center, to be dedicated in April 2024, following a $3 million gift from the Jerome L Greene Foundation.   IAC joins a roster of some of New York's most prestigious cultural institutions supported by the Foundation, including BAM, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theatre, and The Whitney Museum.  The naming will commence with IAC's presentation of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast production of Agreement, by Owen McCafferty, in April 2024.

 

 

The Jerome L Greene Foundation gift, which supports the larger scale of programming and operations in the new 11th Avenue facility, builds on recent support from the City of New York ($10 million) and Irish government ($4.1 million), to support the Center's future redevelopment of its historic 51st Street home, laying groundwork for the IAC's upcoming Phase Two campaign to complete the realization of the vision for a new Irish Arts Center and to secure the organization's future for generations to come. 

 

IAC today also reveals the Spring 2024 programming that will fill its new facility at 726 11th Avenue, opened in December 2021. Featuring the probing, timely new work of political theater Agreement, a beautiful new dance work from choreographer, director, and performer Jean Butler, a residency of internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan, a large-scale exhibition of works by Irish women visual artists, and more, the new season finds IAC bounding forward in its mission to present the evolving arts and culture of Ireland and Irish America in an environment of warm Irish hospitality.  See Spring 2024 Programming section below for a full list of upcoming events.

 

Irish Arts Center Executive Director Aidan Connolly says: “We are thrilled to join the outstanding portfolio of New York cultural institutions supported by the JL Greene Foundation, and to announce this gift in conjunction with one of our most exciting seasons yet.  We look forward to many moments of artistry and inspiration to come in the JL Greene Theatre.  And as we begin our third full year of operation in our new home, we also look ahead to the next phase of our important work: completing our 51st Street redevelopment, and building reserves and an endowment, to complete our vision of a new Irish Arts Center that will be successful and sustainable for future generations.”

 

The opening of the New Irish Arts Center, a 21,700 square foot hub for the arts, in December 2021, culminated a more than a decade-long transformation of IAC into one of New York's most beloved multidisciplinary cultural institutions on an intimate scale, an accomplishment achieved despite the profound disruption of the COVID pandemic arriving in the middle of construction. 

 

The building's flexible performance space—designed by Davis Brody Bond with theater design firm Fisher Dachs Associates (The Shed, Park Avenue Armory), and acoustic design by Jaffe Holden Acoustics (Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Juilliard School)—provides an important new canvas for the development and presentation of the performing arts in New York City. The naming gift from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation further demonstrates and cements IAC's significance in the New York City cultural landscape.

 

“We are proud to play a role in the presentation of world-class Irish arts in New York City,” said Chris McInerney, President and CEO of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. “ Irish Arts Center has proven itself to be an important cultural destination, and the JL Greene Theatre will be host to an amazing array of performing arts for New York audiences."  

 

IAC's Spring 2024 programming continues to reveal the flexible theater's ability to host an array of voices and forms—the worlds they build and journeys they take us on. Following the IAC presentation of their highly acclaimed 1970s Belfast-set punk musical Good Vibrations, Lyric Theatre, Belfast transports audiences to another charged Belfast milieu. Their production of Owen McCafferty's Agreement, a “searing new play” (The Irish Times, in a five-star review) that “expertly conveys” (The Guardian) the volatile four-day process of peace negotiations in Northern Ireland that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement, comes to IAC April 11 – May 12. If Agreement recreates the tense realm of international politics inside the theater, “Ireland's undisputed queen of drag” (The New York Times) Panti Bliss explodes all formality in If These Wigs Could Talk, her hit show that sold out its run at The Abbey Theatre in 2022. The “funny, moving, and personal” (The Irish Times) show runs at IAC from June 13–23.

 

Jean Butler's site-specific What We Hold, an “astonishing dance work, a visual, aural, almost poetic performative archive of Irish step dance” (The Irish Times, in another five-star review), breaks down the barriers of audience and stage, inviting those present on a physical, cultural, and emotional journey through a collective history of Irish dance from Ireland and the diaspora (February 14 – March 3). Multidisciplinary performance maker Luke Casserly and perfume artist Joan Woods collaborate in The Abbey Theatre and Solas Nua production Distillation to lead audiences on another kind of journey: into the Midlands bog Casserly grew up around through the vivid evocations of the olfactory (June 7-9).

 

Lisa Hannigan, who “creates music that sneaks up and envelops listeners in cocoons of sound” (The Telegraph) will be in residence March 21–23. The musician—first introduced to many in her collaborations with Damien Rice and now just as known for her haunting, searching solo works—will write a new work and perform concerts with musicians from Ireland and the U.S.

 

Outside of IAC's own space, the organization extends its reach—both in New York and across the Atlantic—to presentations from artists whose work it continues to champion. Oona Doherty, whose first large-scale choreographic work for an ensemble, Hard to Be Soft – a Belfast Prayer made its U.S. premiere at IAC, teams with Jamie xx for Navy Blue, presented by The Joyce Theater in association with IAC. At Dublin's National Stadium, IAC supports the return of THISISPOPBABY's WAKE (March 6–23), having presented the U.S. premiere of their Panti Bliss-led RIOT in 2018.

 

Throughout Spring 2024, beloved recurring programs continue to bring accomplished artists into IAC traditions. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon's variety show Muldoon's Picnic continues March 11 (with Matthew Rohrer, Mona Simpson, and Suzanne Vega with Gerry Leonard), April 1 (with Todd Almond, Adrian Mckinty, and Maggie Millner), and June 3 (with Susan Cho, Helena Nolan, Suzzy Roche, and Lucy Wainwright Roche). In IAC's Devlin Café, the Café Concert Series brings spirited music out into a social and intimate environment, with Big City Folk Song Club, curated by Niall Connolly returning February 9, March 8, April 4, and May 23, and Traditional Irish Sessions, curated by Tony DeMarco , February 2, March 15, April 5, and May 17. Book Day, for which Irish Arts Center distributes thousands of free books in New York's five boroughs in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, returns for its 12th year on March 15.

 

For the duration of the season, IAC's latest exhibition will showcase women artists whose work reclaims traditional physical and cultural spaces using abstract art. Reclaiming a Space, featuring Diana Copperwhite, Erin Lawlor, Helen O'Leary, and Dannielle Tegeder, will be on view throughout the building from January 29 to June 23.

 

Spring 2024 Programming

 

[VISUAL ARTS]

Reclaiming a Space

Diana Copperwhite, Erin Lawlor, Helen O'Leary, and Dannielle Tegeder

January 29–June 23

March 9 Symposium and Reception

 

Four Irish and diaspora women artists explore notions of home, place and displacement, and identity through different media and styles within the practices of abstract art. Representing both the hard edged and the lyrical, and ranging from oil painting to sculpture, their work shines a light on the genre's reclamation of physical and cultural spaces that historically have been occupied by more traditional forms within the canon.

 

[RESIDENCIES & PARTNERSHIPS]

Origin Theatre Company

Scéal Nua

in collaboration with Irish Arts Center

January – April

 

A new initiative from Origin Theatre Company, Scéal Nua is a development lab geared toward supporting emerging voices in the New York Irish theatre community. Program participants will meet weekly in the Irish Arts Center library to read and develop their work.

 

[MUSIC]

Traditional Irish Sessions

February 2

March 15

April 5

May 17

 

Fiddler Tony DeMarco curates a new season of sessions, hosting some of New York's finest trad luminaries alongside community members. Musicians and audiences alike join in the Devlin Café at Irish Arts Center.

 

[FAMILY & COMMUNITY]

St. Brigid's Imbolc Family Concert with Jenna Nicholls

Saturday, February 3

 

An event celebrating Imbolc, the ancient Irish festival heralding spring and honoring the Irish patron saint and goddess Brigid, with a concert and activities for audiences of all ages. The singer-songwriter Jenna Nicholls, known for her vintage, decades- spanning repertoire, performs music inspired by Irish folklore and magic, with crankie artist Alicia Gerstein joining to animate the set list. Hot chocolate and Imbolc-inspired crafts follow the show.

 

[DANCE]

Jean Butler

What We Hold

An Our Steps and Lovano production

February 14–March 3

 

Featuring Jean Butler, Tom Cashin, Marion Cronin, Colin Dunne, Kristyn Fontanella, James Greenan, Kaitlyn Sardin, Maren Shanks, and composer Ryan C Seaton

 

This site-specific work, re-designed and re-staged for Irish Arts Center after its sold-out 2022 Dublin Theatre Festival premiere, takes the audience on a physical journey through the performance space, encountering an intergenerational cast of renowned dancers. It illuminates the personal and cultural histories contained within the Irish dancing body, inviting you to engage with traditional and contemporary expressions of the form side-by-side and up close, and to experience what the body holds and what happens when we collectively let go.

 

[LITERATURE/MUSIC]

Muldoon's Picnic

 

March 11

Matthew Rohrer

Mona Simpson

Suzanne Vega with Gerry Leonard

 

April 1

Todd Almond

Adrian McKinty

Maggie Millner

 

June 3

Susan Choi

Helena Nolan

Suzzy Roche and Lucy Wainwright Roche

 

The beloved monthly variety show returns with another season of music and madness, prose and poetry, high commentary and low comedy. Based on a late 19th century New York show of the same name, Muldoon's Picnic includes songs written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Muldoon and performed by house band Rogue Oliphant, and an ever-eclectic roster of special guests.            

Rogue Oliphant is: Chris Harford, Ray Kubian, David Mansfield, Cáit O'Riordan, and Warren Zanes.

[MUSIC]

Big City Folk Song Club

February 9

March 8

April 4

May 23

 

Now in its 17th year, Big City Folk Song Club is proud to present some of NYC's most exciting new songwriting performances featuring local and global artists. Past performers include Lana Del Rey, Anaïs Mitchell, Lucius, Mundy, Mick Flannery, Susan O'Neill and more, curated by series founder and “not-to-be-missed songsmith” Niall Connolly (Chicago Tribune). All are welcome, and admission is free.

 

[FAMILY & COMMUNITY]

St. Pat's for All

Monday, February 12 Benefit at Irish Arts Center

Sunday, March 3

Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside, Queens

 

Irish Arts Center hosts the benefit event (a cocktail party with music, food, drinks, raffles and fun) for St. Pat's for All, one of the most inclusive and progressive celebrations of Irish culture and solidarity in the USA.

 

[LITERATURE]

Claire Keegan in Conversation

March 6

 

The Booker Prize finalist (Small Things Like These) and 2023 An Post LAI Author of the Year joins us in conversation to celebrate her latest collection, So Late in the Day.

 

[RESIDENCIES & PARTNERSHIPS]

WAKE

THISISPOPBABY

March 6–23

 

WAKE, the smash-hit theatrical phenomenon from THISISPOPBABY (RIOT), is a home-grown arena party uniting a ferocious full band with the most extraordinary circus, aerial, dance, and spoken word artists in the land. Irish Arts Center is proud to support its return to Dublin's National Stadium.

 

An Irish Arts Center co-commission.

 

[FAMILY & COMMUNITY]

12th Annual Book Day

Friday, March 15

 

Irish Arts Center's wonderful community of volunteers and staff, sponsors and supporters will once again celebrate St. Patrick's Day by helping New Yorkers get lit. Visit one of a dozen Book Day pop-up stations across the five boroughs, where they'll be distributing thousands of free titles of all genres from 8am until the books run out.

 

[FAMILY & COMMUNITY]

St. Patrick's Open Day

Saturday, March 16

 

Every St. Patrick's season, IAC invites our community to a free day of Irish arts and culture, with traditional music and dance performances, workshops and demos, children's crafts and activities, and a sampling of our multidisciplinary educational offerings.

 

[MUSIC]

Lisa Hannigan In Residence

March 21, 22, and 23

 

Also featuring

Theodora Byrne, vocals

Jane Patterson, vocals

Karen Cowley, vocals

Yuki Numata, violin

Clarice Jensen, cello

 

The Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter is in residence this season to write new work and play a series of public concerts with backing artists from Ireland and the U.S.

 

[THEATRE]

Agreement

Written by Owen McCafferty

Directed by Charlotte Westenra

Photo credit: Albert Vecerka/ESTO

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