Once Upon a Parade
St. Patrick's Day 2021

As we all remember so well, last year’s St.Patricks Day parade was postponed at the last minute. With so much work of developing ideas and making costumes with our community had already been done our team of artists maintained their creative flow over 2020 by sharing the work online. Inspired by the creative invention of the amazing artists team involved Uillinn with our partners at Skibbereen Chamber of Commerce has asked the team to build on this wonderful theme in 2021 to create a virtual parade inviting all our community to take part.  

We will be looking to reach a broad cross-section of the local community, and engage people in a programme of online family-friendly activities on a weekly basis from the launch on Monday 1 February, culminating with the virtual parade/broadcast on Wednesday 17 March. These activities will take the form of a creative activity worksheet or live video workshop via social media. For some of these workshops, a pack will be posted out to participants with some materials for them to use and create their own costume/prop items. The idea is that the participants take part in the creative activities at home with their families, and once they have created something, they take a photograph of them wearing/using the finished item and share it on social media, using the hashtags #onceuponaparade and #skibbereenvirtualstpatricksday. This will help the team to gather all of the images generated by the community and re-share them as part of our public broadcast.

The team will work individually from home, to develop further the costumes and props created last year, with the aim of using them in a highly  stylised, magical and atmospheric photoshoot. Inspired aesthetically by the exhibition and book Wonderful Things by fashion photographer Tim Walker, this will result in a set of high-quality photographic images and a short creative film, working with local photographer Kate Bean.

INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTIST TEAM

Lead Artist/Project Manager
Ana Ospina is a socially engaged artist and creative producer with a background in Theatre Design (specialising in Costume). Key themes in her practice include storytelling through space and working collaboratively with communities to explore themes relating to place and to create new experiences. She is also an experienced project manager and will be planning and delivering this project on behalf of Uillinn. Ana led Uillinn’s creative contribution to the parade for the first time in 2019 and invited local fashion designer, Alice Halliday, and local 3D designer/maker, Michael Stephens, to collaborate with her. This year they are continuing the project as an experienced team with a wealth of professional creative experience and a proven track-record.

Costume Designer/Maker and Workshop Facilitator
Alice Halliday is an ethical fashion designer and stylist specialising in sustainable couture and accessories. Inspired by nature and nostalgia, she lovingly creates each piece by hand, using the finest vintage, antique and locally sourced materials. Worn by the likes of Florence + the Machine and featured by Vogue, Alice's award-winning designs have just the right balance of old-world elegance and contemporary design.

Prop Designer/Maker
Over the past decade, Michael Stephens has worked primarily as a graphic designer and photographer, having studied Visual Communications in IADT, Dún Laoghaire as a mature student. Since then he has worked both as a freelance creative and in-house for The Southern Star. Michael has a passion for craft and design and learned basic joinery skills at an early age, and is always keen to learn more and work with new materials and techniques. He owns a GlowForge home laser-cutter which he uses to develop new ideas and techniques for his own creative projects, as well as assisting other creative practitioners with theirs.

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.