Trinity takes part in Dublin’s Culture Night

Posted on: 19 September 2008

Trinity College’s Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition, Science Gallery and Museum in the Zoology Department are opening their doors to the public, free of charge, as part of Dublin’s Culture Night on Friday 19 September along with over 100 of the city’s arts and cultural organisations.

The Book of Kells was written around the year 800 AD and is one of the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts in the world. It contains the four gospels, preceded by prefaces, summaries, and canon tables or concordances of gospel passages.

The main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room, is nearly 65 metres in length, and houses around 200,000 of the College’s oldest books. When built, it had a flat plaster ceiling, with shelves for books on the lower level only, and an open gallery. To book your ticket, please visit www.tcd.ie/Library/

The world’s only robot talent show, ARTBOTS, will run at the Science Gallery on 19 – 21 September. From a robotic spider that recognizes your face to an origami-making android, the world’s most talented robots will be at the Science Gallery.

Curated by Dr Marie Redmond of TCD’s Department of Computer Science, together with Douglas Repetto and Warren Ellis, ARTBOTS will showcase a range of creative arts and robotics activity. The exhibition also features RuBot II – the Rubik’s Cube solving robot created by Trinity College’s Pete Redmond. Please see  www.sciencegallery.com for more information.

The newly refurbished Zoology Museum is open to the public for a couple of hours. Four sessions of 30 minutes each will be held from 5.30 – 7.30pm. Limited tickets are available for collection in person from Anne-Marie Diffley in the Old Library from 5.30pm.

Adding to the colour of the evening on campus will be Samba Spectacular! involving three samba dancers and five samba drummers starting at the broadwalk by College Park, walking past the Berkeley Library and out the Nassau Street entrance towards Grafton Street from 5.00-5.45pm. This will be followed by Capoeira with four dancers and two musicians, also located on the broadwalk, from 7.00 – 7.45pm.

Dublin’s first Culture Night took place in 2006 as an initiative led by Temple Bar Cultural Trust in association with the Council of National Cultural Institutions and supported by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, to provide a new and imaginative route for people of all ages to connect with the arts and cultural life of the city.