The exhibit, titled “An Ceoil na Éireann: The Generation Dichotomy of Music in Galway Ireland,” presents the culture of Irish music.
“Music is an expression of culture, and it is really rooted in [Irish] culture,” Dahl said.
The exhibit is her idea for her senior thesis.
Dahl studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, which, Dahl said, has a popular young adult scene in music. During her study in Ireland, Dahl visited different musical areas and studied the culture of music.
The exhibit features photos of various singers, both of traditional Irish music and of hybridized music, which is music that fuses both traditional and current styles.
One artifact in the exhibit is a traditional Irish drum.
The exhibit also includes a video featuring a concert in Ireland and pictures of various other concerts and their audiences.
The exhibit portrays the difference in Irish music from the traditional sense and what is considered more modern. It also demonstrates how people from different generations perceive music and its heritage.
“It’s not the typical exhibit you see at the museum,” Dahl said. “It’s a contemporary issue that people should be more aware of and take a look at what we are changing.”
The exhibit introduces onlookers to the culture of Ireland by playing traditional and current Irish music in the background, alternating between the two styles throughout the tour.
“I wanted to better understand the sentiments of the different generations over the hybridization of traditional Irish music …with infusion of modern rock, pop, jazz and other genres,” a panel on Dahl’s exhibit read.
Dahl’s exhibit leads onlookers through her experience in Ireland to the older generation’s view of music to the younger generation.
“I thought it was really interesting,” junior Bouquet Harger said. “I liked the video and the music playing throughout.”
The exhibit presented a great deal of culture.
“I thought it was interesting and informative — the traditional and popularized,” senior Craig Geffre said.
As the last panel put it, “The history of Ireland is largely told through the singing of stories, and if the songs are forgotten, so are the stories.”
Dahl’s exhibit is located in the Anthropology Museum in Walker Hall and will be open until the end of the semester.
The exhibit is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information about the exhibit, contact Dahl at [email protected] or Keni Sturgeon, adjunct professor of anthropology at [email protected].
Tim Marl/Staff reporter
Tim Marl can be reached at [email protected].
