Changing Art & Minds
CHANGING ARTS & MINDS
Exhibition by Supports for Women, Leitrim Design House 19th to August 16th September at the Leitrim Design House and Music Room The Dock Carrick-on-Shannon
Arts and minds have been transformed for ten local Leitrim women following their participation in The Leitrim Design House Supports for Women Project where they examined the effects of the Northern Ireland conflict and learned to express their personal experiences of internal conflict using their creative talents. Changing Art & Minds the exhibition, opens at the Leitrim Design House on Thursday the 19th of August at 5.30 pm. Rita Duffy one of Northern Ireland Groundbreaking artists will open the exhibition.
This exhibition is an exploration of the creative journey of the Supports for Women project. Supports for Women developed over one year as creative learning project for women living in Leitrim and the project was set up to encourage women to share their personal stories by using the arts, crafts, creative journaling and conflict resolution tools.
Through the medium of art the project which is funded by the Peace III Programme through the European Unions European Regional Development Fund took the participants on a journey of self discovery and personal growth while also challenging the old negative beliefs that have been inherited in the border county as a result of the conflict.
After all this time, there is still a fear of crossing the border. So many women who have lived in Leitrim all their lives have never travelled to the North. We are so close yet there is a sort of invisible divide so through the programme the women examined that and also their own experiences of conflict on a more general level and this was all done creatively through their art, said Anna Marie ORourke.Over the past ten months the group have travelled to Northern Ireland together four times to engage with exhibitions and attend talks and workshops with other women living in Northern Ireland and this has open up new doors to all involved.
For a period of 10 months, weekly classes and workshops were held in Leitrim which allowed the women to explore art while focusing on the importance of peace and reconciliation.
A series of hands on workshops were offered as part of the course questioning Who am I?throughout these workshops the participants reflected on their own personal situations and experiences of conflict. As a result of their skills based training their exhibition work includes textiles, glass, painting and drawing and mixed media made by the women during workshops with five internationally acclaimed artist based in Leitrim.
Jewellery designer Erika Marks visual artist Laura Gallagher, textile artist Ester Kiely glass artist Louise Rice and textile artist Brigitta Varadi worked with the group throughout the year.
I watched in awe as these women flourished and changed before my eyes. Their confidence and self-esteem grew and they learned because of the entire programme. They have embraced their individual creativity and realise they can master other conflicts in their lives in a creative way explained Therese Hackett, a therapist who taught personal development classes for the first five weeks of the course.
Most of the project activities revolved around identity and relationships and dealing with the negative impact of Northern Ireland. Therefore the cross border visits were designed to focus on creative output and engagement with issues of culture and society in Northern Ireland from the visit, Programme Manager Anna-Marie commented.
The Supports for women project also connected with Northern Irelands August Craft Month a month long craft extravaganza that takes the principles of Slow as the overall theme. In the words of Mae West Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.
On the 29th of July Supports for Women and a selection of women’s groups from Draw down the walls Belfast participated in a Sampler Culture Clash workshop to experiment with new media in a slow environment.
This workshop took place with women from Leitrim and Belfast exploring the connections between craft and the written and spoken word. Over the day the group worked together to create a collective sound stitched piece based on the spoken and written words they created with in the session with performance poet Yusra Warsama and textile designer David Littler .
Draw Down the Walls is a unique project that uses art and language to examine Belfasts controversial interface walls organised by Golden Thread Gallery in partnership with North Belfast Interface Network, Lower Shankill Community Association, Deanby Youth Club and Ardoyne Youth Club. Draw Down the Walls is funded through Belfast City Councils Development and Outreach and Good Relations Departments.
As well as cross-border visits, the women completed an accredited course in conflict and resolution skills which aimed to empower them to take an active role in post-conflict resolution in their local community
We are very excited to have such an acclaimed artist as Rita Duffy to open the exhibition at the Leitrim Design House on the 19th of August said Anna Marie ORourke Project Development Officer. Rita Duffys art is often autobiographical, including themes and images of Irish identity, history and politics. She is an associate at the Goldsmiths College London and is currently working on an artistic exchange with Argentina and N. Ireland looking at the role art has in post conflict societies. Duffys work is being increasingly collected at home and abroad with work in numerous public and private collections.
Path to promise a book has also been created as part of the programme by Cloone based publisher Mari-Aymone D’Jeribi which gives a unique insight into each of the women’s personal accounts of the programme.
Over the month of July Changing Arts and Minds was exhibited in The Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast Northern Ireland most prestigious contemporary art galleries.
I cannot believe the work the participants have created in such a short space of time. Most of the women had never engaged with art of craft before the project begun. As well as their new skills the group have developed strong friendships in ten months. Everyone has conflict in their life at some point as well as our history with Northern Ireland and these women have learned to deal with this theme over the course of the project said Anna-Marie.
Working crossborder crosscommunity and with different cultures and traditions, Leitrim Design House has promoted understanding and respect using an artistic approach through the Supports for women Project. concludes Anna-Marie.
Supports for Women is a creative learning programme for women living in Leitrim organised by Leitrim Design House and funded by the Peace III Programme through the European Unions European Regional Development Fund which is managed by the Special EU Programmes Body. www.intoleitrim.com
For further information please contact the Leitrim Design House tel 071 96 50533 email annamarie@leitrimdesignhouse.ie
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