Special 1916 artist residency with the jackie clarke collection
MAYO County Council's arts office, library service and the Jackie Clarke Collection in Ballina are delighted to announce that visual artist Katie Moore has been selected to be artist in residence to commemorate 1916.
The aim of the residency is to provide the artist time to research and develop ideas in the creation of new art work in response to the events of the 1916 Easter Rising by working with the Jackie Clarke Collection. It also provides an opportunity to highlight the unique, nationally significant resource that the Jackie Clarke Collection represents, especially in the centenary year of the Rising.
Katie is a talented emerging artist based in Foxford. She is a recent graduate of GMIT (Galway campus) with first class honours and has been a finalist for the RDS Student Arts Awards. Her work is exquisitely detailed: she uses textiles, stitching and installation in addition to drawing and video to create unforgettable visual experiences of the world.
Katie was selected via an open competition which attracted large numbers of established excellent artists. The selection panel were greatly impressed by Katie’s approach to the residency and genuine connection with the theme and Jackie Clarke. She was greatly inspired by the artists’ site visit in June, during which Sinead McCoole, of the Jackie Clarke Collection, provided a fascinating insight into the collection, which has been described as ‘an overflowing treasure chest’.
Jackie Clarke (1927-2000) was a Ballina businessman and a genius collector of Irish historical material. In 2005, his widow, Mrs. Anne Clarke (1940-2015), in accordance with her late husband’s wishes, gifted his collection to Mayo County Council on condition that it remains permanently in Ballina. It is now available publicly, for the people of Ballina, Mayo and Ireland, at the former provincial bank building on Pearse Street, which opened in 2013.
In the coming years, as we mark the centenary of the founding of the state, this repository of Irish material will become a site of central importance as documents in this collection will shed new light on these past events.
Katie will spend time working in Ballina to develop an art work which will be launched next year. She has plans for an engaging installation, as she explains: “I'm making a piece of art that is an acknowledgement to the great collector Jackie Clarke and an act of memory for the 1916 Rising.”
During the residency, which starts this month, Katie will involve many people and groups from the local community. As well as her own art work, which will be installed in collaboration with Ballina Arts Centre at the civic exhibition space in 2016, she will also facilitate the design and installation of a special art work comprised of contributions by local people, which will be exhibited publicly at the Jackie Clarke Collection building.
You can keep up to date on progress by following Katie’s blog, www.paperbloom.net. See also www.katiemoorevisualartist.com.