Celebrating its 15th year in 2009, the Catskills Irish Arts Week will take place July 12-18 in the Irish Catskill Mountains centered in the historic Irish American resort town of East Durham in upstate New York.

The CIAW is an exciting blend of over sixty classes in traditional Irish music and dance taught by a very distinguished faculty recruited from Ireland, the U.S. and Canada, making it the largest summer school in North America devoted to the Irish Traditional Arts. In addition to the morning and afternoon classes offered Monday to Friday, there are daily topical lectures on Irish music and dance, nightly outdoor concerts in the Quill Centre Pavilion, Roadhouse ceilithe (Irish dances) and sessions galore that take place all week in and around the hamlet of East Durham in the heart of the Irish Catskills. The multifaceted CIAW cannot be contained on one campus but is centered in a real Irish Village that springs to life every second week in July when thousands of passionate followers of the fireside music of Ireland flock to the Catskills and experience the community atmosphere that allowed the music and Irish heritage to flourish down through the centuries. The week concludes with the Andy McGann Festival of Traditional Irish Music and Dance Festival on Saturday, July 18, featuring the entire staff of the CIAW for one last blast on the M.J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Centre Festival Grounds in East Durham. Like Chief Francis O’Neill and Michael Coleman whose contributions to the evolution of Irish music from American shores, the CIAW preserves traditional Irish culture through its annual dedication to its music and dance for future generations. History is not just a thing of the past at the premier Irish traditional summer school in the United States. Make 2009 the year you experience the craic in East Durham during the Catskills Irish Arts Week!

The Catskills Irish Arts Week offers over 60 classes with dedicated and skillful teachers in Irish music from either side of the ocean covering all the instruments commonly played in the scene today and also set dancing and contemporary step and sean nos solo dancing. In addition we have a large children’s program (ages 5-12) sampling the traditional arts and some Celtic Art classes to enhance the week’s experience for those not enrolled in the primary classes of music and dance. The classes run from 10 to 11:30 am and again from 1:30 to 3 pm (except for morning set dance class which runs from 10 am to 12:30 pm) from Monday to Friday in a variety of settings conducive to the class including the local school district and area resorts and roadhouses. When the classes finish for the day, the hard work is rewarded with a full slate of activities around the music and dance including daily topical lectures from 4 pm to 5:30 pm that close out the afternoon. Each evening the teaching staff is featured in a series of concerts held outdoors in a Pavilion located on the M. J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Centre Festival Grounds or a nightly Ceili in either the Shamrock or Weldon House along the main drag, Route 145, in East Durham. Multiple sessions fuel the late night fun in historic roadhouses in the area anchored by the teaching staff and include the increasingly popular “Listening Room” Sessions and Singing Sessions creating many legendary nights and historic groupings and vital for keeping the tradition alive and building community during the week.

For more information or to register, call 518 634 2286 or visit www.irishvillageusa.com.