Mayor of Höchstadt visits Mayo school to mark twinning landmark
THE Mayor of Hochstadt, Mr. Gerald Brehm, and local sculptor Cathal McCarthy were welcomed to Davitt College by principal Mr. Conor O’Reilly.
During this visit earlier this month, sculptor Cathal McCarthy made an exciting presentation to Mayor Brehm outlining his ideas for his sculpture of Peace for Höchstadt.
This sculpture will be a celebration of the Freundschaft (Friendship) and Partnerschaft (Partnership) that has existed between Castlebar and Höchstadt, twin towns since September 24, 2000.
Mayor Brehm also met with German teachers Annette Newall, Linda Monaghan and Ailish McDonagh as well as German language learners.
This sculpture project is in collaboration with students from Realschule Höchstadt and Davitt College, sister schools since 2002.
German language learners in Davitt College and English language learners in Realschule Höchstadt will be given an opportunity to create short poems (Elfchen) on the theme of Peace which will then be recorded by the artist and installed into the sculpture in Höchstadt.
Castlebar town is twinned with Höchstadt an der Aisch in Bavaria, Germany. Since September 2000 there have been several fruitful collaborations and exchanges between the two towns.
Following submissions from Castlebar based artists, a deputation from Höchstadt arrived in Castlebar to visit the studio of sculptor Cathal McCarthy and went to see some of the artist’s public artworks he has created nationally.
In December 2019, McCarthy travelled to Höchstadt for a meeting with Mayor Brehm and council representative Dr. Eberhard Ranger. There followed a meeting with Mayor Brehm, Dr. Eberhard Ranger, Johanna Blum and Tanya Fischer, English teacher from Realschule Hochstadt.
It was decided by the Höchstadt Council to commission the artist to create a contemporary artwork exploring the theme of peace for their town park in collaboration with the young language learners of sister schools Realschule Höchstadt and Davitt College.
PEACE
The theme of peace is a particularly important one for Europe. Now more than ever with the current crisis in the Ukraine is the voice of young people writing and sharing their thoughts and ideas about peace, an important and invaluable initiative.
2022 is also the European Year of Youth.
This sculpture would celebrate the twinning of Höchstadt and Castlebar and bring an important focus to the theme of peace, which is much needed in our world today.
The focus of the sculpture is peace. The text/words/poetic elements would be created by students of the Realschule Höchstadt and their sister school Davitt College, Castlebar.
These written creations or ‘Elfchen’ (poems of 11 words) would be embedded into a sound activated capsule within the sculpture.
The completed sculpture will take pride of place in the Park of the Cultural Mile in Höchstadt. Student voices from Davitt College and sister school Realschule Höchstadt would be heard in the park as people come close to the sound activated sculpture.
Davitt College’s German Department looks forward to being part of this collaborative project.