Arts centre engagement among highest in the country

During 2025, there were 250 performances given at the arts centre in Mullingar, and collectively, they attracted an attendance of 41,800 – but along with that, the centre ran a huge amount of classes, both onsite, and through its outreach programme.

In fact, revealed Bernadette Solon, voluntary chairperson of the board of directors of Mullingar Arts Centre, in a presentation to members of Westmeath County Council at their April meeting, the number of people attending classes totalled almost 4,500 per week.

Overseeing the operation is centre director, Seán Lynch, and there are six other staff on the payroll as well as nine other people employed under various schemes and self-employed tutors – six in drama, four in music, nine in dance and one in costumes.

Ms Solon revealed that each year the centre hosts visiting professional drama companies, as well as other professional entertainers. Some 19,000 of the attendances were to the Mullingar Arts Centre’s own productions, shows performed by the Student Players, the Youth Theatre, the Senior Stage School, the Junior Stage School and the Kindergroup, for very young children.

Along with those, there are the Rural Stage Schools – visits to rural schools by arts centre tutors.

There had also been a number of adult drama productions, including a musical.

As well as drama, there are choirs attached to the centre – Mullingar Voices and the Mullingar Gospel Choir; the Across the Boards group, for children with special needs; the Sweet Tunes choir, which is an active retirement project. Additional members are being sought for all those.

Continuing, Ms Solon stated that the arts centre also has four dance schools. The annual pantomime is probably one of the highlights, she stated.

Some of those who have come through the ranks at the centre include Niamh Algar, Mark Irwin, Nathan Daly, Evan Fitzgerald-Doherty, Emmet Cahill, Justin O’Brien and Daniel Egerton.

Looking to the future, Ms Solon said the arts centre would like to broaden its activities into other branches of the arts.

It would, she continued, like to revamp the premises: “There has been no capital investment in the arts centre since it was started in 1998, so we’re now talking about the year 2026, so there’s a lot of items that now have come to the end of their usefulness and will need to be updated and repaired,” she said, adding that there will be efforts made to secure grants for such works.

An Cathaoirleach Cllr Aoife Davitt commented that Mullingar was lucky to have the centre and to have the level of teaching it has, as displayed by the “fabulous ambassadors” who have benefited from the work there.

Cllr Niall Gaffney, who stated that he had the privilege and pleasure of being in a few of Seán’s productions, said there is “something for everyone” going on at the venue and he supported any call for additional funding. Support came also from Cllr Emily Wallace.

Arts centre director, Seán Lynch, said the chairperson and the members of the board were “second to none” and very supportive. He said the top 20 arts centres in the country had less than 50 per cent of Mullingar’s community involvement a week.

Cllr Bill Collentine said it was “a wonderful facility” for Mullingar to have and should be supported by all.

Cllr Liam McDaniel said he had served on the board for a period, and something that struck him was the lack of funding from the Arts Council.

Ms Solon said that one of the requirements is that there be a strategic plan in place, and CEO Barry Kehoe said he looked forward to working with Bernadette on that.