1916 Centenary Project; One Hundred Years of Art and History

This Primary Schools Programme was part of the 1916 Centenary celebrations.  A collaborative project between West Cork Arts Centre and West Cork Education Centre it was funded by Cork County Council as part of the Ireland 2016 Initiative.  The project engaged primary school children and their teachers in an exploration of both art and history. The project celebrates the commemoration of the centenary of 1916 without placing an emphasis on the political events of the time. Instead it encourages  schools to consider the passage of time, and how Ireland, Art and the world have changed, or in some ways stayed the same. Twenty groups from 11 schools each took a five year period from the past century to explore and create an artwork inspired by that time.  These artworks came together to create an exhibition that representing one hundred years of art and history through the eyes of West Cork school children. This ambitious and exciting project fulfilled a number of cross curricular objectives, including encouraging children to engage with their history, widening knowledge of art history for both teachers and children, and supporting teachers in new visual arts ideas and skills for the classroom. Alongside the exhibition a poster was published documenting all twenty artworks, copies of this poster are available to buy at a cost of €10. Schools Coordinator Alison Cronin delivered the project in schools, and the exhibition took place in The James O'Driscoll Gallery at Uillinn from 29 April 2016.