An Irishman's Diary

IN A CAFE recently, I got talking to a Canadian woman – a painter – whose work involves curating an exhibition for the annual Nuit Blanche in Toronto.

Nuit Blanche (“White night”) is Toronto’s version of a phenomenon begun in France back in the 1990s, wherein once a year, museums and other arts venues stay open late and organise special events. In Ireland, it’s known simply as “Culture Night”, the 2012 edition of which happens next Friday.

But it’s more of an evening here, really. Whereas in Paris and other places, it’s an all-night affair. Vampires could safely attend the entire Toronto spectacle, which begins precisely at sunset – 7.03pm this year – and runs until the sun comes up again.

The increased attention on art is great, my Canadian friend told me, although the late opening hours bring problems with which galleries don’t normally have to deal. “We had a bus load of drunk people arriving at 4am last year,” she told me. “That was a challenge. One guy tried to climb on the exhibits.”

Shocked as I was to hear that even Canadians sometimes drink excessively, I shuddered to think what might happen in Ireland if and when the event becomes an all-nighter. But as the schedule for 2012 reveals, we won’t find out, this year anyway.

From its 2006 debut in Dublin, Culture Night has expanded dramatically in a geographic sense, with participation now from Dingle to "Derry/Londonderry", according to the website ( culturenight.ie). Chronologically, however, its boundaries still seem to be limited by pub closing time, beyond which no Irish cultural institution is willing to risk exposure.

It’s probably just as well, therefore, that Ireland’s Nuit Blanche 2012 will not clash with another September fixture: Nuit Noire – “Arthur’s Day” as it’s officially known – that now-annual celebration of drinking culture in which, by closing time, many participants have made exhibits of themselves.

Under the slogan “paint the town black”, this year’s Nuit Noire happens six days later than Culture Night, on September 27th. But whatever Diageo’s sales figures claim, every day is Arthur’s Day in Ireland, and Nuit Blanche is not taking any chances of an overlap.

Few, admittedly, are playing it as safe as Clasach, the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann theatre in Clontarf. According to the Dublin Culture Night brochure, Clasach is staging a “special evening”, with song, dance, and story-telling.

But as well as being special, it will be very short. As confirmed by the box office when I rang to check if it was a misprint, the event runs from “5pm to 6pm”. Any danger that the music session will turn into a session of the drinking variety should thus be minimal. The event is also guaranteed to be vampire-free.

Most participating venues plan to be a bit more liberal with their hours. Even so, you will struggle to find one that opens past 11pm next Friday, and a majority will close well before that.

The National Museum at Collins Barracks is a good example. In one way, it seems to be prepared for the arrival of Toronto-style busloads of drunk people, since exhibits for the evening include “the museum’s special collection of objects that can be handled” (if not climbed on). Despite which, the place will close at 9pm, long before the pubs.

Just across the river, meanwhile, the “House of the Dead” – scene of the famous James Joyce story – will stay open an hour later, until 10pm. But readers may recall that the dinner party described by Joyce hadn’t even started by that time. Poor Aunt Julia may have been on her last legs. Yet even she was up well after midnight.

Oscar Wilde could have been talking about Ireland’s noire/blanche dilemma when he said that “we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”. Well, I see from the Culture Night brochure that The Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar will host readings and music until 10pm. But if you’re hoping for a bit of astronomy afterwards, you’ll have to hurry. Events at Dunsink Observatory end an hour later, at 11pm.

It would be nice – in theory anyway – if Dublin’s annual arts binge could extend until maybe 1 or 2am, at least. Unfortunately, if even Canadians can’t stay sober that long, a proper Nuit Blanche here would probably require cultural change in more ways than one.

In the meantime, the honour of being the latest event in this year’s Dublin programme falls to Áras Chronain, the Irish Cultural Centre in Clondalkin, which will be open until midnight for music, song, and set-dancing. It is of course hoped that visitors with drink taken will not climb on the exhibits. Or at least not before securing their consent.

* fmcnally@irishtimes.com