Art Alongside

This year the th

eme for the Art Alongside Project was “Opposite Ends of the Spectrum”. The project artist Mary Clare O’ Brien began with several sessions of skills based workshops including colour mixing, working with clay and paper mache. From here the pupils were guided to develop their ideas for the main project, which, in our case, was to create opposite characters made from a range of recycled materials as well as clay, paper, paint and fabric and fibre. These characters were to be opposite in as many ways as possible, in appearance, features, clothing, hairstyles and colour and also in their portrayed occupations and general traits.

The project ran from late September to late February and was funded by Wexford County Council, The Arts Council and participating schools. Over its duration the pupils worked through many of the strands of the Visual Arts Curriculum. Through their partnership with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Art Alongside linked work for the final exhibition which opened in the Wexford Arts Centre on Thursday 9^th March.

The children

now have the opportunity to view their work, as well as that of other primary school children from around the county, exhibited alongside the work of professional artists. Both fifth classes will be given a guided tour of the exhibition at the Arts Centre this week.

A school-based exhibition will also take place where all the pupils’ hard work will be on show for the rest of the school, parents, relations and friends to appreciate. A date for this will be set shortly. (See also the Art Gallery pages)

Our Art Alongside Project
A Report by Danny Bennett

"Near the end of September, an artist named Mary-Clare came to our school.

Our class and the other fifth class were picked to do the Art Alongside project for a period of several months. The first week we all did wax resist pictures.

About two weeks later, we started working with clay. First we made little figures. Then we made masks, and the we came to the biggest part of the project. We paper machéd a balloon, and used clay for the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and stuck a toilet roll on the bottom for the neck. Then we painted all of the head. We filled a two-litre bottle of milk with water (to support the head) and stuck the head on. We used clay for the shoulders and then we used paper maché on the bottle (including the shoulders). We used a thin and coloured paper on the milk carton, for the clothes.

On the last week, we used wool, cloth and other materials for the hair. A selection of our figures was put on exhibition in the art centre, and the others will be put on display in the school.

I think we all enjoyed the Art Alongside project. I did anyway. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot of different art techniques. My favourite part was the clay figures."