Mayo primary school pupils set to present ‘A Splash of Blue’

An innovative classroom art resource, created and compiled by the pupils of St. Angela's Primary School, Castlebar, is to be formally launched next month.

'A Splash of Blue', designed to accompany the Mayo County Council art collection, will be used by children all over the county to respond to and appreciate the council's extensive collection.

'A Splash of Blue' is the result of a year long project involving the current 5th class of Ms. Cogan, who were selected to go on a journey of exploration as to what it means to be an art curator, and to think more deeply about art and its meaning.

At the outset, a classroom of the school was turned into an art gallery where Aoife O'Toole of Mayo County Council arranged for all of the artworks from the council's art collection for schools to be on display.

The pupils were then walked from artwork to artwork where award winning artist, Kiera O'Toole, explained how to think more deeply when responding to a piece - the subject of the artwork, the medium used, its title, and how the artwork made the viewer feel.

From there, the class curated their own selection for exhibition in the school.

This was followed by the pupils creating their own individual pieces of art, where they were given creative license to use any materials, canvas or medium of their own choice.

The teachers were particularly impressed by the number of abstract art pieces created by the students, given that this is a genre of art not often explored in primary school.

Meanwhile, all of the project activities were audio recorded and photographed by Ciara Gallagher of Kids Own Publishing, which co-ordinated the project, and who documented all aspects of what was indeed an inspiring journey of exploration.

Although the last four sessions were interrupted by the coronavirus school closure in March, 2020, the project was completed by Zoom video session.

It was then over to Kids Own to collate all of the work into the final publication, 'A Splash of Blue', a child and teacher friendly resource that will be used in Mayo primary schools to help students explore the collection in their own unique way.

All involved are extremely grateful to Ciara Gallagher of Kids Own, Aoife O'Toole of Mayo County Council, and artist Kiera O'Toole for providing the opportunity to take part in a wonderful project.

The students, with their teachers Ms. Walker, Ms. Finan and Ms. Mulligan enjoyed learning so much about artworks.