SEEK Urban Arts Festival returning to Dundalk in July

The organisers of SEEK Urban Arts 2023 have announced that this year’s festival will start on Saturday 1st of July and will run over a number of weeks with an exciting line-up of themes to be explored including links to our mythological past, industrial legacy, and Anglo-Norman heritage.

The festival is focused on utilising the arts, alongside Dundalk’s cultural heritage, to help regenerate, refocus and enrich the overall perception of the town in a highly visual and artistic way, a SEEK Urban arts spokesperson said.

This will be the fifth year of the festival, which also lays claim to having the tallest mural in Ireland as part of its collection, when it commissioned the depiction of Lugh (Lú) on the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk.

Sarah Daly, Director, Creative Spark, said she and “the team at Creative Spark are delighted to partner with Dundalk BIDS once again to deliver Seek Festival 2023. Building on the past four years success, we hope this year will be even bigger and better, supporting artists and celebrating our town.”

Martin McElligott revealed: “It gives us great pleasure to announce the second instalment for this year’s festival, Lady Roesia de Verdun of Roche Castle, one of the most powerful female figures at that time in Ireland.

“To get a good account of a place we really need to peel back the layers as far as we possibly can, and the different moments and people that sit between those layers.

“Over the last few years, the SEEK Urban Arts murals have become part of the DNA of the town, a fingerprint of our unique identity and backstory.

“We are very excited about the themes that have been chosen this year and the artists that have been chosen to bring these stories to life.”

Louth Heritage Officer, Brendan McSherry, added: “Lady Roesia de Verdun is often portrayed almost as a pantomime, or fairytale villain, as an intimidating, scary and even malevolent figure, who had few scruples.

“However, she was also a wife, a mother of five children, a widow (several times) and, most unusually in this period of history, a castle builder – in fact she was the only woman ever to build a castle in Ireland, making her one of the most powerful women of her time!”

The artists undertaking this legendary piece are ‘Studio Giftig’ and consist of the Netherlands-based artist duo Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek.

They met in 2007 and the pair developed a common style of painting and are now renowned for their highly detailed realistic murals.

Out of 100 nominees, in 92 cities, in 30 countries, Studio Giftig were recently announced as the Street Art Cities ‘Best of 2022’ worldwide winners so it will be exciting to see them in action here in Dundalk Town Centre!