Artist In The Community

 2024 marks the 1500th anniversary of St Brigids death and as part of the Brigid1500 programme for Louth a tender competition was held back in February for an artist group/collective to facilitate a county wide project that would engage the community in the heritage and legacy of St. Brigid through art and creativity.

Following assessment, the tender for the project was awarded to Creative Spark.  A key part of our Brigid1500 programme is to engage communities throughout the county to come together and celebrate the life and legacy of St Brigid and this project is a great opportunity for our communities to do this. 

The project began in June and is led by Grainne Murphy of the Creative Spark Print Studios. She has been working with 4 other artists and a number of community groups and schools. The artists taking part are Susan Farrelly and Una Curley who are both textile & mixed media artists. Claire McAteer who is a textile & print artist, and Etaoin O’Reilly, a ceramicist make up the creative team. The artists have been conducting a variety of workshops through which they are developing a series of art works centred on the theme of St. Brigid. It is anticipated that about 15 pieces of art ranging in various sizes, will be produced and these will then be exhibited at a unique exhibition as part of the Brigid1500: Louth Birthplace of Brigid festival which will run from January 16th to February 5th 2024 inclusive. 

Groups that have been involved in the workshops to date include:  Faughart National School, Gaelscoil Dun Dealgan, St. John of Gods Venagas Centre, Ardee Active Retirement Group and several swimming groups, including Annagassan and Templetown.

Workshops have included

• Cross painting workshops with Susan Farrelly to paint and decorate Brigids crosses,to create a collaborative wooden sculpture for
  display in the Museum. 
• Crios Belt Weaving workshop. This workshop teach participants how to weave your own unique Crios Belt. The workshop is facilitated by Úna Curley.
• Natural pigment and ink making workshop with Gráinne Murphy where participants create their own sketchbook filled with colours from nature and the local landscape.
• Ceramic workshop- with Etaoin O’Reilly.
• Textile workshop- with artist Claire McAteer to experiment with textiles to create a unique Brigid themed artwork. This includes needle felting and wetfelting to create their own unique brigids eye.

The workshops will continue right through the autumn and winter months in 2023.