The first Yeats Festival Season will be launched by Tommie Gorman, Northern Editor for RTE, on June 12th at the Glasshouse Hotel, overlooking the Garavogue River in Sligo town. The festival is supported by Filte Ireland and will take place from July 24th to August 15th 2009.

The festival is presented by some of Sligo’s key cultural organisations, including The Model who have come together to celebrate the creativity of the Yeats family, most especially brothers W.B and Jack B. Yeats, and to highlight the special inspiration provided by Sligo for their work. There is a varied programme of children’s workshops, readings, exhibitions and theatre running through the three weeks.

For the Festival Season, The Model will be producing an exhibition ‘Jack B. Yeats; The Sligo Paintings’. In his later years Yeats acknowledged the deep influence of Sligo on his work in the words “Sligo was my school, and the sky above it”. The exhibition is presented by The Model with support from Sligo Art Gallery.

If you are about town on Friday afternoon do pop into the Glasshouse and pick up the brochure straight off the press. There will also a performance by Shaylyn, an exhibition of the prize winners of Sligo Education Center‘s recent Yeats art competition and light refreshments provided.