The Launch of Yew Wood Venues – Youghals Premier Venues
No Comment‘Yew Wood Venues’ – the new name behind Youghal’s Premier Venues – The Mall Arts & St. Mary’s Collegiate Church contributed in excess of €280,000 to the local economy of Youghal in two years according to surveys undertaken in accordance with Failte Ireland’s Festivals and Cultural Events Research Template. The venues are run by The Youghal Socio-Economic Development Group who currently lease the buildings from Youghal Town Council.
In building upon the success of the venues to date, the two venues are to be re-branded and will now fall under the title of ‘Yew Wood Venues’.
Yew Wood – the english translation of Eochaill – encapsulates both unique venues of Youghal. A new base and booking office will operate from ‘The Coach House’ of ‘Enterprise Youghal’ in Emmet Place.
Expansion
The expansion plan of ‘Yew Wood Venues’ focuses on Youghal’s commercial and contemporary arts potential. Joyce Hosford, Events Manager of Yew Wood Venues commented:
We are encouraging local artists to exhibit their works in the Mall Arts Centre and we are focusing on attracting and developing local and emerging talent. We are seeking to utilise the Mall Arts Centre to its full potential as well as seeking to explore contemporary arts events. In order to do so, we envisage a ‘bottom up’ approach to our developmental plan – that is, there is a hugely strong community arts base in Youghal and we aim to support and nurture such talent. The vision is to ensure Youghal is a recognised centre of Arts excellence, built upon the strengths of the community”
- Joyce Hosford, Helen Coady and Aileen Murray
€280,00 Contributed To Date
To date, the venues have delivered a range of productions across the arts spectrum, from visual to music, dance to drama. This has made huge impact on the local economy – events which have been running in the Yew Wood Venues have contributed €280,000 over 2 years to the local economy.
Referring to the economic spin-off to the local community, Manager of The Youghal Socio-Economic Development Group, Aileen Murray said:
“The future plans of Yew Wood Venues also focuses on developing the local economy and boosting local businesses through ‘spin off’ revenue generated from events taking place. These venues share a common goal with many businesses and organisations within the Youghal community – to help increase the number of people visiting and investing in Youghal. Failte Ireland identified that the average visitor attending an event in Youghal will spend on average between €30 and €55” said Aileen.
The continued development of attendances at the venues will be crucial to the venues ongoing success. In order to achieve this, there will be several initiatives undertaken through marketing, education and outreach functions. For example, the well supported Sacred Roots events, which took place in St Marys Collegiate Church will recommence shortly. These events helped to promote the arts to the youths of Youghal as well as generating much support and recognition from the community and a far. Other such developmental programmes will encourage local artists to take residence in the Mall Arts Centre and exhibit their art on a monthly basis. Yew Wood Venues will also continue to support St. Raphaels and their future projects.
In aiming to develop new captive audiences within the community, Yew Wood Venues will commence a monthly film club hugely significant considering Youghal’s strong history of interest in film. This will be a low cost means of art and cultural activity and a means for those who wish to develop their interest in cinematic art.
David McSavage, the comedian of the infamous RTE production ‘Savage Eye’, will take to the stage of the Mall Arts Centre on Saturday 25th February at 8pm. Tickets are now available. 2012 will also see hilarity from the legendary Brendan Grace, a Shakesperean play, a Moby Dick production, the family favourite Lambert Puppet Theatre and the welcomed return of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne to name a few. Plans are also underway to host a number of large-scale contemporary cultural and arts events which at time of press are still under negotiation.
“It is imperative in such a close community with numerous venues, we target to our specific audience and market the event accordingly” states Joyce Hosford. “We are hugely enthusiastic about the year ahead. It is great to have a permanent base, an office where people can come and meet me, discuss future plans, propose ideas, highlight queries or book tickets” she added.
In the current climate, it is imperative that local resources are utlised to their maximum potential. Yew Wood Venues is starting 2012 with much enthuasism and positivity for the year ahead. With this rebranding, also brings a very strong and forward thinking developmental plan for the Mall Arts Centre and St Marys Collegiate Church to accompany this new title.
Yew Wood Venues office is in the Coach House of the Entreprise Centre, Emmet Place – just next to St. Marys Collegiate Church.