3pm might be too early for some of you, but some of you will be able to make it on Tuesday afternoon for the launch of the Northwest Pride Exhibition “Taking Liberties”.  This is the 4^th multimedia arts exhibition of NW Pride, and we are delighted to have The Dock as the venue for it this year for the very first time. I am only back from my travels, but I got a quick glance of the work already and I was able to grab a minute with curator Brendan Dean, “there is nothing like now” he said when I asked for a minute of his time at some convenient hour for him, well he had me at that for sure! Besides some shared personal stories he filled me in on NW Pride being the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) support organisation for the Northwest of Ireland, and that work for the exhibition has been submitted from all four corners of the country, the Northwest, Wexford, Cork and Dublin to name a few. Especially interesting for me that there is a good handful of emerging Arts students taking part in the exhibition, and I will have to come back with a bit more time and my little camera for seeing more of the work, I couldn’t have kept hovering over Brendan anyway while he was hanging the last few drawings, not that he was fazed by that, but my teenage daughter needed me to get home for some sort of teenage emergency and my looking at the work was somewhat cut short by that.

There is a whole brochure/ programme out there for NW Pride 2012, August the 7^th till the 12^th, with events all over Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal, some remaining few are still at The Dock to be had, and the launch for the exhibition is in a way the launch of the whole festival. So if you can make Tuesday 7^th of August 3pm at The Dock, we are looking forward seeing you there!

Your Dock Blogger…

…and there is more for Wednesday, Izzy the woman running the forum asked us to put some information up here…  Once I know times and somewhat more details I’ll fill you in, but keep the Wednesday at the back of your mind!

Full Spectrum, a forum hosted by Northwest LGBT Pride (a community festival for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people, our families, friends and allies.) The forum will explore practical steps that could and should be taken by all community organisations to become more inclusive. This “Full Spectrum” forum will feature speakers from minorities within the LGBT community,

including disabled, transgendered, asylum -seeking and minority ethnic people. It is open to LGBT organisations, disability organisations and any other community groups that would like to improve their accessibility and inclusivity. Full Spectrum is supported by the Leitrim Development Company.