Skibbereen Kerala Community

Skibbereen Kerala Community
St Patricks Day Residency
8 January to 18 March 2024

https://uillinnwestcorkartscentre.blogspot.com/2024/04/southern-star-little-piece-of-kerala-in.html

The Skibbereen Kerala Community has been awarded the St. Patricks Day Residency at Uillinn for 2024.

There are over 70 members of the community in Skibbereen. Malayalees have been part of our community in Skibbereen for the past 20 years.  The majority of the community members work in healthcare settings in Skibbereen, Bantry and Clonakilty. The  Skibbereen Kerala Community was formed to celebrate the culture of Kerala.

Image credit: Sandhya Zachariah

As a recognition of the Skibbereen Kerala community’s creativity and its contribution to Skibbereen, members of the community group were awarded the St. Patrick’s Day Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre for 2024. The residency ran from 8 January to 18 March 2024, and includes an artist studio and a bursary towards creative activities and cultural investigations.

Throughout their residency, the members exhibited great commitment to learning and sharing their skills and cultural experiences. Together, they created beautiful Pookalam; flower carpets, artworks and models, reflecting their cultural heritage.

The group engaged with several local artists; taking part in creative writing, textile and photography workshops. Members also shared their skills with the wider community, giving a children’s Pookalam workshop to create a large flower carpet using the colours connected with St.Patrick’s Day.  They also held open studio events with information on their cultural heritage and traditions.

Coming up to St Patrick’s day, the community was very keen to showcase music, dance and rituals integral to their cultural celebrations. SWARA, which roughly translates as ‘Self-shining’. This took place on Saturday 9th March in Uillinn’s main ground-floor gallery.

The event showcased music, dance, costume, and martial arts from the South Indian region of Kerala. The show was a free event and tickets were completely booked out with a waiting list. We had approximately 90 people in attendance, including participants.

The programme included Kerala dance forms, children’s dancing, a short 10-minute workshop in teaching Thiruvathira steps to the audience, a Saree draping demonstration, a martial arts performance, and a wonderful fashion show of costumes from the region.

To conclude the residency, there was a studio exhibition from 9 to 16 March , sharing the accumulated work for all to come along and see.

The residency was supported by Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre in partnership with Cork County Council and with support from The Arts Council.
WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.