Go Niche

EVER FOUND yourself free of a night and wondering what’s worth going out for and what’s not going to cost you money?

Then sign up for Dnotes, a combined website, email notification service and smart-phone app that aims to keep users up to date with all sorts of cultural happenings in the Dublin area.

Founders Margaret Corcoran, an artist, and her husband Peter Fitzgerald, who is editor of Circaart magazine, decided there was a need to marry digital technology and the city's rich cultural life.

“We wanted to let people know where they could go for a free glass of wine, as well as see something interesting, on the way home from work,” says Corcoran.

Free to subscribe to, the service aims to encourage the general public to go in and view art in private galleries as well as open art spaces. “I know what it’s like to see the glasses of wine set up on the table through the window of a gallery and wonder what’s going on and if you could go in,” says Corcoran, who is represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. “We go to so many of these events and it’s always the same people. It would be so nice to see some new faces, and you never know, you might like a piece enough to buy it,” she says.

Even if you don’t, just going to see it is good news all round. “There is terrific work going on here right now, some amazing shows, and just getting out is good for everyone’s morale.”

Yes, sales are important, says Corcoran, but it is also true that “artists want an audience for their work”.

* dnotes.info