The programme is an initiative of Culture Ireland and forms part of Imagine Ireland and will involve over 1,000 artists and producers from Ireland. They will create over 400 individual events including theatre, music, literature, visual arts, dance and film across 40 states in the US from January to December 2011.
Imagine Ireland hopes to enable Irish artists to strengthen the bonds that exist between Ireland and America, to generate new relationships and opportunities with key partners and presenters and to build new audiences and interest in Ireland across the cultural, business and heritage sectors.
US partners to Imagine Ireland include: NYPL, BAM, and the Lincoln Center in New York; the Kennedy Center, Studio Theater, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; Emerson College, and Berklee College of Music in Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art and Shakespeare Theater in Chicago; the LA Philharmonic in Los Angelus; Roxie Theater and Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco; Emory University and the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta; and the Annenberg Center and Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia.
The Irish Government has invested €4m ($5.2m) in the project