The phenomenon of arts centres grew in the 1970s, following the opening of the pioneering Project Arts Centre in Dublin. The first of its kind in Ireland, it opened its doors in 1966 for a short festival and never closed them, creating a much-needed space for artists to work and showcase to the public. Outside of the cities, which had dedicated venues for performing and visual arts, smaller towns around Ireland relied on parochial halls and school buildings to experience performance and visual arts. The movement towards developing arts centres around the country was a welcome one. Having dedicated centres where art-making could be engaged in and celebrated in turn encouraged a rise in standards as well as renewed awareness of the arts.
Mayo’s flourishing arts scene is in no small part due to the welcoming and nurturing presence of the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar. On any given night, it is one of the few places where you might be treated to a live theatre or dance performance one night, a quality arthouse film the next, a lecture on a topic of cultural and historical interest, music or an art exhibition another night. International opera is live-streamed here, bringing the best of the international arts to Castlebar. It has been a cultural beacon to a wide catchment area in Mayo for more than 25 years, cementing its place and purpose in 1990 with Arts Council support. Since then the Linenhall has grown into a formidable centre with well-curated programmes. It serves the community in many broad ways, inviting all ages to participate in a variety of art-making workshops and it provides vital support to regional artists developing work.
While its arts programming is high-quality and its curating standards rigorous, the Linenhall is also community-minded, opening its doors to the the wider world, including schoolchildren, exhibiting their art works periodically as well as showcasing local musical and performance talent. Periodic festivals such as the annual children’s cultural festival
Roolaboola, invite the younger generation in to explore their creativity with hands-on workshops, music, drama and art-making, as well as top notch performances.
In 1990, the Linenhall moved to its present home in the impressive grey limestone block building, formerly a once-lively 18th-century clearing house for flax and linen during Mayo’s heyday as a linen-producing centre. Today the path to its door is well beaten and the building feels lived in in the best possible way. Its doors are usually open and even if there’s no exhibition or show to see, there’s always the coffee shop where you might bump into an interesting person and share a story over a bowl of homemade soup and brown bread.