We were delighted and grateful for an invitation to meet with a class of 5th Year art students at Tullow Community School, and very impressed with the students’ engagement with the big ideas presented in Feast Upon The Earth.
Our presence was part of a day celebrating the student’s exhibition of a project bringing new life to old things. Their teacher Ann Corrigan has done an incredible job, together with renowned creator and artist Sasha Sykes’s inspiration and guidance, to help them connect to real issues in our world today, and to find the creativity and vocabulary to express their concerns and solutions. Awareneess is the first step towards change, and this kind of art-meets-life work is a meaningful way to make palpable the action we can all take to change our world. Projects like this help to prepare students for life.
Counsellor William Patton, in his capacity as ambassador for environmental issues, and representing the Tullow Tidy Towns Committee, attended the exhibition and gave encouraging words to the class.
While the sculptures are in themselves achievements in creative skills, the connections forged by each one of them to real issues in their world is the lasting win. The students seemed to feel that they were in a safe space to find the confidence to creatively express their views and solutions to real life challenges.
We were delighted to participate, and to witness their work. It’s not easy to delve into problems and fears and find words to explain what’s happening, and importantly, how to find a better way. It was inspirational to be in the room.
Sasha was clearly a strong influence on them too, and seems to have given them confidence and passion to put the work in. Wind beneath their wings. What a team!
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