Art in the open air at Coolgreany Market

I was invited to show work at the Coolgreany Market yesterday, not my usual location for showing my creative work but I thought what the hell! It was a big contrast to business meetings the day before in Dublin.  I really enjoyed the atmosphere it is a lovely community market; everything is done on a donation basis to a local charity. Stalls are offered at no charge if you sell your welcome to make a donation. Coffee and tea are offered with complimentary home baking and a big donation box on the table. So everyone hangs out and stands around chatting. Loved it! Well done to all at the Grain store that run the market the first Saturday of every month, the next one is the fourth of September I've penciled it in.

The poultry lady looked like she was giving free birds away, the amount of people all ages walking out with cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. The boxes had holes poked into them and wobbled very uncharacteristically.

I loved the Old Rectory's designs and hand printed products all made in County Wicklow. The Tinahely Show t-towel was just lovely. Their products have that lovely wood cut screen print feel off them although the design work is party done on a computer.

It was great to catch up with Rachel Kennedy and see her lovely pottery, looking forward to seeing more of her work. 

I was really impressed with the quality of food on offer. Especially a local woman Ciara and her first outing of delicious jellies and salad dressings. Very professional presentation and and I can see this product being stocked in nice deli's here, abroad and on tables wherever good food is being enjoyed.

Gorey Family Play Day and access to arts

Car packed and all items on my list checked I set off into Gorey and picked up a few last things; plastic cups and paper plates for painting, a ream of good value A4 paper for making paper planes and some pom-poms which were great value in the €2 shop, 3 packs for €2.
I was delighted that I had time to go to the new civic square and see the Gorey Market House Craft and Design Festival Showcase and AIB Photojournalism Exhibition. A great start to showcasing world class quality craft in Gorey. Notable piece for me were Becky Knights Stone Swimming Costume, Terry Dunnes Wexford Tide, Louis Mulcahys Cockerels, Ceadogán Rugs and Roísín de Buitléirs Yarn Blue Glass. That is not to say I did n't like the other pieces Evelyn Grants Cabbage Teapots were charming, Peadar Lambs stained glass intense and Diarmuids Murphys Smaoineamh Study desk fluid and superbly crafted. The success of work is for me is how engaged I am in looking at it, if it prompts me to look closer or go back a second time, if the piece of work stays with with me and has piqued my interest, whether mind wonders back to a piece, the quality of the thought and making. I also have strict assessment of work that after I have looked at the work and enjoyed it that looks a bit like

• would live with a piece in my home or studio, 
• purchase it for a corporate client, 
• include it or the artist maker in a show I curate

or not. Well done to Gorey Town Council for bringing such good quality work to the area, I hope this is the start of a new tradition.

We had a change of  venue from the new civic square to the Gorey Community School three days before the event which was a shame. However there was a spot of rain on the day so the indoor venue worked fine - it is one of the challenges for holding outdoor events in Ireland as you really can never be guaranteed of the weather. So this is the hall shortly after I arrived

 and this is the event in full swing

I mentioned some of the activities in my last blog post so I started the set up with putting the easiest ones in place first.

Both of these activities are to based around building and raising awareness of community for people living in Gorey and its environs. They also create spatial and visual awareness of the area and its geographical context.

The next thing to do was construct the cooper pipe 3D cube, the frame for building our Underwater Scene the center piece of community arts section at the Gorey Play day. One of the guys (thanks Clinton!) at the Enterprise and Community Department of Wexford County Council had made the frame.

Funky Junk Area. This consisted of 40 or so cleaned bottles from the recycling Center in Wexford; the contents of my art kit from the studio which includes tissue and crepe paper, coloured card, bubble wrap,  matchsticks and lollypop sticks, pipe clearners, pom-poms, glitter, rolls of metallic pattered ribbon, rolls of wool, swatches of material and anything you can possibly think of that you could use inventively or traditionally to decorate something!

Painting area HQ

Artist Collette Mulready whom I asked to come and facilitate the painting section. She did a great job. Last year she came and did fantastic face painting. The painting and crayon area had it's very own gallery space.

 

Unfortunately lots of the artists forgot to come back and take their work home.

We also had a designated Glitter Station. For those of you who have worked with children (and adults) you will have experienced the fascination with glitter, plus the cost, waste and tidy up of glitter so in an attempt to contain glitter mania

The idea was that if all the glitter was sprinkled in the boxes provided we could reuse the excess sprinkles and it worked.

I did some felt making, fleece hand rolled to felt with soapy water. The idea was to show children how to make bracelets out of fleece but to use them as bubbles in the Underwater Scene.  None of the items made it to the intended destination but hey you gotta go with the flow and the important thing was a group of children and adults got introduced to felt making, had some hands on experience and enjoyed it. I love the way childrens curiosity brings them to a table to watch an activity, once you smile at them and ask them if they want to join in they respond and engage with enthusiasm. It is so important at events like this to be encouraging, engaging, inviting and super nice to children and whom ever is with them. How you greet a child could be significant to how they experience the art materials. In my experience ensuring access to arts materials for all is a lot to how the access happens and how open the invitation is.

Thanks to all the facilitators and volunteers that came worked really hard making sure the kids had a good arts based experience. I love that several of them commented that they "got just as much fun out of it as the children did".
Sherry Nugent of Irish Quilting Magazine came with her six and eight year olds to showcase quilting postcards they were busy and did a great job.

Thanks also to the chess club that came and played chess for the afternoon I saw some serious games going on with adults and children, great to see.

Getting ready for a community arts event

Plans are made, drawn up and change at the last minute. Fluid adaptation and yogi breathing are recommended. I will say no more.
Thought it would be fun to share some photos of todays prep for tomorrow's family fun play day at the Gorey Market House Festival. We are building on Ballygarrett Art Studio's involvement and the development inaugural festival last year. CreativeDynamix was coming into inception right about now last year.
The venue for Gorey's Family Play Day has change to the Community School, 2 - 5pm tomorrow. The Community School is at the end of Esmonde Street moving away from the main street in behind the car park where the organic/farmers market is held.

I live here
Large laminated maps are stuck on the wall. one of the town of Gorey and one of the electoral area and people are invited find where they live on the maps, or are staying and to place a sticker. This worked really well last year. The idea behind it is to build identity and to make a connection to the geographical area and social communities.

Funky Junk
Right now its just junk. The guys in the recycling center are starting to get to know me now. I'm the person that goes their and takes recycling away. Just wait till I start up cycling clothes! Anyway these cleaned bottles will be cut and folded and decorated into jellyfish and what ever else the kids come up with.

I was going to photograph the lists I make. but I'll leave them to your imagination. There have been phone calls, text messages and emails to confirm volunteers, facilitators (the crew) and find new ones!

It is important to be prepared and have a plan but not to get hung up on it and have a certain amount of flow. After all it is going to be fun! Is n't it?