Artist In The Community
2024 marked the 1500th anniversary of St Brigids death and as part of the Brigid1500 programme for Louth a tender competition was held 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 was to engage communities throughout the county to come together and celebrate the life and legacy of St Brigid and this project was a great opportunity for our communities to do this.
The project began in June 2023 and was led by Grainne Murphy of the Creative Spark Print Studios. She worked with 4 other artists and a number of community groups and schools. The artists taking part were 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 carried out a variety of workshops through which they developed a series of art works centred on the theme of St. Brigid.
The whole project culminated in a unique exhibition as part of the Brigid1500: Louth Birthplace of Brigid festival which will ran from January 16th to February 5th 2024 inclusive. The exhibition took place in the old Houstons Building which was acquired by Dundalk Credit Union and who generously gave the arts office the use of the space for the duration of the exhibition.
Groups that have were involved in the workshops and the creation of the artwork included: 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 included
- Cross painting workshops with Susan Farrelly to paint and decorate Brigids crosses,to create a series of collaborative wooden sculptures.
- Crios Belt Weaving workshop. This workshop taught participants how to weave your own unique Crios Belt. The workshop was facilitated by Úna Curley. During the 10 day exhibition there was an active Crios Belt being woven by the public under the guidance of Úna.
- Natural pigment and ink making workshop with Gráinne Murphy where participants created their own sketchbook filled with colours from nature and the local landscape.
- Ceramic workshop- with Etaoin O’Reilly with a number of local schools.
- Textile workshop- with artist Claire McAteer to experiment with textiles to create a unique Brigid themed artwork. This included needle felting and wetfelting to create their own unique 'Brigids Eye'.
The workshops will continued right through the autumn and winter months in 2023 and all creations were on display during the exhibition where over 5,000 visitors crossed the threshold during the 10 days.
