In this first episode from the series of podcasts, ‘Encounters with Jack B. Yeats,’ from The Model, home of the Niland in Sligo, you will hear a selection of segments from an archival recording of an interview with the artist, Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957). The seventy-six-year-old Jack flew to London in the winter of 1947. It was his first time on an airplane, as he was to record an interview with his friend, Thomas MacGreevy (1893-1967), for a BBC radio arts show, called the Third Programme. This show was broadcast the following year in May 1948.

Curator and writer, Thomas MacGreevy was a pivotal figure within the Irish arts scene. He was the director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1950 to 1963 and was a constant advocate for Jack’s work. In this interview, broadcast over seventy years ago, Jack speaks about his development as an artist and the special significance that Sligo held for him.

This archival audio recording is part of the Sound & Moving Image Catalogue in the British Library (T7655R/1 C1). Jack B. Yeats scholar and musicologist, Dr John Purser kindly helped with the rediscovery of this archival audio recording for this podcast series, as there appears to be only one other recording of the artist’s voice in existence, which we will hear in a later episode of this series.

The soundtrack for this series, ‘no man’s land,’ is composed by Karen Power, as a commission by The Model in 2020. This 8-channel sound installation is based on Power’s field recordings, which uncovers and musically highlights the unique sonic profile of the Sligo seaboard.

Credits:

Funded by the Decades of Centenaries Programme (2013-2023)

Researcher: Dr John Purser

Producer & Researcher-Writer for the podcast series: Lara Byrne

Podcast episodes, introduced by Isabel Claffey

Sound Engineer: Daniel Bannon

Sound Editor: Colm Condron

Soundtrack, ‘no man’s land,’ (2020) composed by Karen Power

Curated by the Artistic Director of The Model - Emer McGarry