Down Community Arts – 30th Anniversary – Art Exhibition

Drumaness and Dundrum

This project was also funded by the Rural Engagement Arts Programme and was facilitated by Sharlene Oldroyd. Sharlene is a sewing teacher, seamstress and marketing executive for an online fabric store, working primarily in the Drumaness area. During the ‘Peron and Place’ project Sharlene worked with 2 local groups, the Drumaness District Community Association and Creative Village Dundrum, to provide sewing workshops. During these workshops, the participants looked at the history of Irish Linen and the garments that have been made from it. They then under the guidance of Sharlene created their own designs to make up in Deadstock Irish Linen sourced directly from a local factory, using these historical garments as a source of inspiration. Many of the participants had never sewn before, but in the space of 12 weeks had completed a full garment and became aware of the extensive benefits of this skill from the practical implications to the benefits to mental health.

Downpatrick

Artist Charlene Rooney and Cumann Gaelach Leath Chathail ( Lecale Irish language society) worked collaboratively to create a circular ceramic sculpture. The project looked at building the Irish language from the bottom up and used the domestic brick to reflect this.

The symbolic circular form was used to represent continuity and strength. The piece is purposefully designed to look unfinished as a work in progress, as is the Irish language
movement. Looking closer at the sculpture, the foundations of the piece included the 3x significant founders of the society back in the early 80s. These parts are also connected using a network of roots and mycelium( a network of near invisible fungi connecting all living organisms that communicate with each other) . Depicted on the sculpture is a tree stump, a tree that has been cut down but has started to resprout from the seemingly dead stump. Each brick represents the growth of the Irish language society in Lecale.

The porcelain child figures represent the future. Crank clay was used for the base bricks and a fine white clay for the remainder of the piece. The sculptural child figures are made with porcelain. The technique used is sgraffito, carving away a colour layer of clay to reveal another colour underneath. To accompany the sculpture, sound plays with a few members of the group describing the
piece and inspiration in Irish.

Interwoven

The NI Office provided funding to DCA to engage with Centenary Celebrations commemorating 100 years of Northern Ireland. DCA decided to deliver a project looking at the changing culture of the population of Northern Ireland and commissioned Chinese artist Fang Zhao to create a sculptural installation. The funding stipulated that work created would have to be accessible to public viewing 24 hours a day 7 days a week so DCA set about working with Fang to create a piece to fit the brief. Zhao created a stunning sculpture accompanied by 100 hand drawn tiles representing the nature of
Northern Ireland. The work is currently on permanent display at Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick.

Kilkeel

Comm’on women’s group is a newly established community group which aims to bring women together, developing new connections and friendships through shared participation in activities and social outings. The informal group invites local women to come together to celebrate their uniqueness and perhaps learn about others or be inspired to try something new or different. Working in collaboration with local artist Melissa McKee, Comm’on Women have responded to the theme to create an original mixed-media artwork; a reflection of their coming together in the shared place they call home. The diverse backgrounds, cultures, personal interests and individual identities of the women have been captured through layered paper collage, while the prevailing acrylic depiction of a scene from the Mourne landscape embodies the women’s shared love for the stunning area they live in and beautiful community they are proud to be part of. The personal and sentimental nature of the collaging process, paired with the collaborative painting effort, sparked valuable conversations and resulted in the creation of a deeply meaningful and unique artwork.

Newtownhamilton

The Newtown Together Craft Group worked with local textile artist Caroline Gorman Shimmons creating a series of textile pieces using felting, printing, natural dying, batik and embroidery or mixed media. The Newtown Together Craft group explored their connection to their landscape and local area of Newry & Mourne. It’s very much a farming community and each person chooses what connects them most including picking blackberries, mushrooms, pulling apples, or potatoes, cutting turf, hay, flax and old customs around the fairy tree. The group tried to stay as close to nature as possible only using local wool and flax and linen. which was hand felted or spun only using naturally home made dyes including onion skins, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, coffee, apple tree
bark and alder tree cones.

Saintfield

Funded by the Rural Engagement Arts Programme a group of Saintfield Community Association members met with glass artist Alison Lowry, over a course of several evenings to discuss how to approach this arts project. Several key sites that were important to Saintfields development and history were decided upon and the idea was to create a very loose ‘map’ documenting these places that the group felt were important. A theme of Saintfield past and present was agreed on. The group had several sessions in Alison’s studio, creating their own works in glass, which helped them understand some of the processes that might be used to create the final piece.

The artist’s house and studio is in the centre of Saintfield and was the old schoolhouse. When she moved in, several of the sash windows needed to be replaced- but she had kept the originals – and it was these that were used to frame the art work. A mixture of photographic ceramic decals and prints have been used to decorate glass panels and the window has then been re-glazed with putty.

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New Belfast Community Arts Initiative trading as Community Arts Partnership is a registered charity (XR 36570) and a company limited by guarantee (Northern Ireland NI 37645).Registered with The Charity Commission as New Belfast Community Arts Initiative - NIC105169.