REVIEW: Esker Arts in Tullamore celebrates a successful year

SINCE opening in 2023, Esker Arts has established itself as a vital and vibrant addition to the cultural and social fabric of Tullamore and Co. Offaly.

This year has seen the programme expand ever further and Sean Walsh, Artistic Director of Esker Arts, has been looking back on the year in review.

“There were a number of ‘firsts’ in the programme this year. We had our first jazz concert, with the John Donegan Irish Sextet in August. While not being broadly popular like some music genres, jazz is an important part of the menu that we must present at Esker. The audience we had for it was quite good – with many people travelling from outside the county to attend.”

In total Esker Arts presented over 190 events in 2025. These range from big productions and concerts to small workshops and talks.

In all, over 20,000 people attended a ticketed event at the venue. On top of that, over 2,000 people visited exhibitions. Highlights of the year included Offaly playwright Eugene O’Brien’s Heaven, which sold out two nights and Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, one of the leading theatre companies in the country, who staged a fabulous piece called The Last Pearl. Blue Raincoat will return in 2026 with a production of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage.

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Esker Arts presented a number of literary events and amongst the guests was Marina Carr. “The Marina Carr event was very special as she is one of Tullamore’s must successful artists and it is important to the ambitions of Esker Arts that we have a relationship with such people”, says Sean Walsh.

Twelve different local arts productions were held at Esker Arts, and these include dance and stage schools, choirs, the musical society and the panto which is currently running. As always, local arts bring in a lot of people with almost10,000 people attending local arts events at Esker this year. Additionally, the Hullabaloo Children’s Arts festival included many workshops too as part of its wide-ranging programme, which hosted 21 events with almost160 children attending.

In November, Esker Arts had its first contemporary dance production. It was a piece called Crystal Cloud, by Irish choreographer Fiona Quilligan. The Artistic Director described the production as “a beautiful show and a good start for an artform that will need work for us to build an audience. Dance is something that there is not a lot of in the midlands and gives an opportunity to Esker Arts to become a venue synonymous with the artform.”

The visual art programme featured 10 exhibitions across the year. These included BogSkin, an exhibition created by the RHA celebrating the relationship that Irish artists had and continue to have and featuring work by many major artists. The exhibition was presented in the RHA gallery at the start of the year, and Esker Arts was the only other venue to show the exhibition. The programme also included an exhibition presented in association with Amnesty International Ireland highlighting the plight of refugees around the world.

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An exhibition celebrating 20 years of the work of Anam Beo, a Co Offaly arts + health organisation was hosted in October and small exhibitions for the Offaly Traveller Movement and the Tullamore Community Training Centre.

The year finishes with the second edition of the Offaly Artists Show, an exhibition showcasing the work of artists who are from o rliving in the county. The exhibition was curated by artist Geraldine O’Reilly and five works from the exhibition were purchased forthe OPW’s national state art collection.

“Visual art is something that is so important for Esker Arts. A big part of the brilliance of the building is the two Croghan Gallery spaces that we have. On top of this, we will soon have our artists’ studios ready to make available to artists. We are designed to be a venue with a strong leaning towards visual arts”, says Sean Walsh.

The arts centre also played host to a number of other events during the year, which were outside of the artistic programme. These included the national arts + health conference, the Check-In Check-Up, a Creative Schools event for the Arts Council, as well as number of events for Film Offaly Music Generation, Offaly County Council, Irish Waterways, Tullamore Credit Union and Offaly Domestic Violence Support Services

Sean Walsh went on to say “In all, there were many incredible days and nights of magic and brilliance. And that’s what we have to continue to aspire to... creating these memorable times where people are engaging with the arts and loving it. Whether something is exhilarating, moving, contemplative, hilarious or shocking, we are in the business of making experiences.”

The Artistic Director also paid his thanks to the staff at the centre “We have a great team in place, and I’d like to use this opportunity to thank and praise all the guys. They do exceptional work. It’s not easy – this kind of work – with work on evenings, nights and weekends, long days and juggling many things at once, but they all do it and do it well.”

Reflecting on the past 2-and-¾ years, Sean Walsh is delighted that “the people of Tullamore are happy to come here, they feel welcome and they know they will have a good experience. Next year’s programme is in place and is designed to be impressive and impactful. But that’s it for 2025! It only leaves me to say thank you to all who have given support and commitment to the project over the year.”