The imaginative and creative lives of children has always been a focus for Highlanes Gallery, which later this year marks its fifteenth birthday.
Last autumn the gallery team actioned its first hybrid Primary School Spring Programme, with its first full remote programme just being completed with three classes in two local schools, Marymount N.S. and St Patrick’s and St Brigid’s N.S.
Innovative sculptor Janet Mullarney’s recently acquired installation My Minds I was the focus for the four week programme, Soft Sculpture, where teachers Dawn Kennedy and Ailbhe Kennedy with their respective 4th classes at St Brigids and St Patricks NS, and Eimear King and her 5th class at Marymount NS together with visual artist, Claire Halpin, who facilitated the project, look at, discussed, reflected and then made their own individual and collective responses to the work.
The unique programme uses visual thinking strategies to activate reflection and discussion, and with practical sessions where the whiteboard found Claire virtually in the classroom, with the students drawing and exploring physical movement in space, looking at position, connecting, bending, unfolding, stretching, containment and balance, creating soft sculptures, experimenting with a range of materials and construction methods.
The resulting sculptures which characters inhabited included a night club, a funeral, a wedding, and a war.
Commenting, Director, Aoife Ruane said “ingenuity, creative thought, collective and individual working, expression, inventiveness and individuality is so evident from the work that the three classes made, and I was delighted to be present at their final round-up session, where each class got to see the work made by the other classes and their highly articulate and reflective responses.
“We are thrilled that the programme has not been hindered by the pandemic, and that with committed principals, school arts coordinators like Bairbre English (Marymount NS), Lorraine White and Liz O’Connell (St Patrick’s and St Brigid’s) and teachers, that the students are supported and facilitated so that they develop sensitivity to the visual, spatial and tactile world, enabling the children to experience the excitement and fulfilment of creativity and the achievement of potential through art.”
Rebecca McDonagh, Anabel Ryan, Alisa Poviloityte and Ema Ambrasaite from Marymount NS with their artwork from Highlanes Gallery’s Primary School Spring Programme: My Minds i – Soft Sculpture. Photo: Jenny Callanan.
As Highlanes Gallery prepares to reopen, if you are a teacher and want to get involved in future programmes, later this autumn, email Simon Colfer at info@highlanes.ie.
Janet Mullarney: My Mind’s I: Lower Gallery,Drogheda Municipal Art Collection: Upper Gallery, 2 – 12 June 2021
Highlanes Gallery gratefully acknowledges the on-going financial support from Louth County Council, the Arts Council of Ireland, as well as patrons, benefactors and friends.
Highlanes Gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday, 10.30am – 4.30pm
Pre-booking advised, but walk-ups facilitated. Visitors details are taken for contact tracing.
Highlanes Gallery, Laurence Street, Drogheda on the Boyne, Co. Louth, Ireland info@highlanes.ie; W. www.highlanes.ie T. + 353 (0) 41 9803311.
Zara Lee, Leah Shevlin and Emily Leddy from St.Brigid’s and St.Patrick’s NS with their artwork from Highlanes Gallerys Primary School Spring Programme: My Minds i – Soft Sculpture. Photo – Jenny Callanan.
