Edgelands Exhibition
6 February to 12 March 2024, Stairwell Galleries

Uillinn Schools Programme 2023/2024

Kilcoe National School, Our Lady of Mercy National School, Dromore National School, Ardagh Boys School, Goleen National School

Edgeland Schools Project takes inspiration from the artwork and themes seen in the recent exhibition Speculative Artefacts by the artist Pascal Ungerer here at Uillinn. 

West Cork Primary Schools were invited to apply to participate in the programme which began with a tour of the Speculative exhibition followed by an art workshop.

Public Engagement Assistant, Petrina Shortt, visited each school and facilitated workshops to help the children develop and make their own artworks in response to the exhibition.

 

About Pascal Ungerer

Pascal Ungerer is an Irish visual artist originally from West Cork. He has a background in lens-based media and in recent years has focused on developing his painting practice. He is interested in looking at the in-between spaces that lie at the outskirts of towns; where industrial buildings meet the nature of the countryside. He is drawn to unusual structures in the landscape, as well as places that have hidden histories.

The Art Project: Developing Ideas

The children took inspiration from ideas discussed around the exhibition. Some of the themes we will touch on are:

Images: A piece from the exhibition by school children
Monolith by Pascal Ungerer

 

 

FLOCK TOGETHER: Birds for Peace

flock-together-_-festive-schools-project

 

Schools Winter Installation December 2023

Flock: a gathering of individual birds that travel together.

Our participating students were asked to do the following:

• Design a bird to symbolise peace and happiness - be as imaginative as you can!
• Use upcycled/recycled materials where possible
• Your bird can be big or small - we welcome all shapes and sizes
• Write a message for peace or happiness that your bird will carry

In November 2023 Uillinn invited local schools to create unique and imaginative birds that carry messages of peace and happiness.The birds were hung as a festive art installation titled Flock Together.We encouraged teachers to use this project as a link to subjects/themes within the curriculum.

learning links idea:

• Research Irish winter birds and take inspiration from these birds to create your own unique imaginative bird
• Use this project as a talking point for what the word ‘peace’ means for each child and when they feel peaceful and happy.
• Historical examples of people who advocated for peace.
• Literacy – read a story/poem that holds a message of peace or happiness. Write about a time you felt peaceful or happy.

 

Bright Lines

Spring Schools Programme 2023

Bright Lines - Children’s exhibition of work  - Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, 3 June - 1 July.
 
Bright Lines invited students to stretch how they see and interpret the world around them and weave together new stories.

Bright Lines invited students to be creative with their responses blending items from their everyday life with their imagination. 

Altogether 100 students from 1st - 6th class worked on Bright lines - our Spring education programme for primary schools.

Following a tour and workshop at Uillinn with Public Engagement Artist Kate McElroy viewing the work of Sérgio Leitao The Fallout the students were visited in their classrooms to develop their own collaborative collages exploring creativity and storytelling. 

A sincere thank you to students from Dromore NS, Scoil Mhuire NS, Schull, Scoil na mbuachaillí, Clonakilty and Gaelscoil Dr. Uí Shúilleabháin, Skibbereen for their excellent creative work and the teachers for taking part in the programme.

 

Images: Students in their classrooms creating collaborative drawings

Art Activity

On Saturday 10 June between 10 AM - 1PM, children and young people are invited to take part in a drop in art activity at the centre where they too can add their artistic contributions to Bright Lines. This collaborative drawing art activity is part of the celebration of Crinniú na nÓg - A day of free creativity for children and young people.

Worlds Within Words
Spring Schools Programme 2022

Students workshop responses

Worlds within Words was our Spring 2022 schools programme designed by Uillinn’s Public Engagement Artist Kate McElroy. It was created in response to the
exhibition Interactive Museum of Languages a touring exhibition by Artist Tomasz Madajczak commissioned by Mother Tongues which promotes multilingualism and diversity in Ireland.

Kate facilitated tours, workshops and classroom visits with four school groups of varying ages; Senior infants from St Patrick’s Boys school, Skibbereen, 4th class from Timoleague National School, 5th class from Scoil Mhuire NS, Schull and Junior Certs from Mount St Michael, Rosscarbery.

By engaging with the interactive artworks and participating in the delivery of an art programme, children explored other languages, cultures and diversity and created their own artistic response to these themes. The exhibition opening coincided with Cruinniú na nÓg, the national day of Creativity for Young People and ran until 23 June, 2022.

Above top to bottom: Learning guides and tasks designed by Kate McElroy

Resource for teachers - Downloadable learning guides 

Resource for teachers - Discussion on how to create a space for multilingualism in the classroom and helpful ways that this can be encouraged.

This discussion centers around ideas explored in the exhibition on show at Uillinn: West Cork Art Centre Interactive Museum of Languages created by artist Tomasz Madajczak and commissioned by Francesca La Morgia, Founding Director of Mother Tongues. Kate McElroy, is the public engagement artist at Uillinn. Here they discuss creating space for multilingualism in the classroom and helpful ways that this can be encouraged.

Marks of Place
Secondary School Programme for Transition Year students 2021

Drawing inspiration from the online exhibition by Siobhán McDonald,Traces of Air as well as aspects from her own practice Artist Kate McElroy led three zoom workshops and online exhibition with transition year students.

Each student received a package including a handmade sketchbook with information, images and creative prompts to get them started on their own artistic journey. The students explored creating colours, textures and marks from everyday materials they find around thoeir house or outside. The students with guidance then developed these into various takes on ‘landscapes’ which could be representational, abstract or an amalgamation.

       

Mixed media mark making with found materials and Artworks created by students displayed on Uillinn galleries website

Resource for teachers: Presentation for download

Sensing Place
Autumn Primary Schools Programme 2021

Sensing Place was Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre’s 2020 Primary Schools programme, taking the point of inspiration from three Uillinn resident Artists; Mary Sullivan, Pascal Ungerer and Kate McElroy the selected primary schools explored a variety of different ways that place can be explored through Art. The three artists display how a theme such as place can be viewed in different ways and approached through a variety of different media. Pascal uses paint to capture places on the edge of rural and urban. Kate uses photography and found objects to capture a sense of a place in flux. Mary uses performance to respond to specific places often in her home place of Bere Island.

Sensing Place offered 3 primary school, with pupils from 3rd to 6th class an opportunity to encounter artworks of varying media and explore their meaning, developing pupils looking and responding skills under the guidance of Public Engagement Assistant and Artist Kate McElroy. Unable to do gallery or studio visits, Kate shared videos of the artists from their studios, presentations and learning guides for students to learn about the artists themes and processes.

 As part of Sensing Place, Kate delivered a Zoom teachers meetup, a zoom brainstorming workshop with the class, an outdoors workshop/Zoom workshop with postal package for the class and worked with teachers and students to curate an exhibition of their work which was viewable on the Uillinn Galeries Website from 30 January - 14 March, 2021 and as a rolling exhibition on our social media channels.

Downloadable Presntation for Teachers: Here
 

Sample students work

It allowed them to explore their own creativity without having to follow a particular way of doing something. It gave them the freedom to create something based on their individual interests and to use materials of their own choice. - Teachers response

 

Connecting
Autumn Schools Programme 2020

Connecting was Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre’s 2019 Primary Schools programme.

We invited local Primary Schools to visit the exhibition The Past is a Foreign Country by Anita Groener which took place from 31 August to 12 October 2019. The Past is a Foreign Country was a timely exhibition both politically and socially, as it dealt with issues around migration and what it means to be human. The exhibition offered plenty of scope for cross curricular links and for primary school children to investigate themes of empathy, relationships, home, storytelling and nature.    

Connecting offered primary school pupils from 2 to 6 class an opportunity to encounter original artworks of varying media and explore their meaning, developing pupils looking and responding skills under the guidance of Public Engagement Assistant and Artist Kate McElroy. As part of  the project Kate delivered a teacher’s workshop, a gallery guided tour with a practical workshop, a classroom based workshop and worked with teachers and students to curate an exhibition of the work at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.   

The exhibition was displayed at Uillinn from 31 January - 14 March, 2020.   

 

2018

Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger

To download a worksheet ready to print to give students as they visit the exhibition click here. The worksheet has a focus on the gallery questions asked in the Leaving Cert but also a focus on helping students engage with the work.

Fuzzle, Primary Schools Exhibition Artwork in the Stairwell Gallery by pupils from six local primary schools who were involved in our annual Visual Encounters Programme and were inspired by the exhibition Buzz and Hum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both Sides Now an exhibition of artwork by students from Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty inspired by the exhibition 80: Moving Still by David Seeger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017 

 

Art Space and the Body, Primary Schools Exhibition Artwork in the Stairwell Gallery by pupils from six local primary schools who were involved in our annual Visual Encounters Programme and were inspired by the exhibition Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What If? Second Level Schools Exhibition Artwork in the stairwell gallery, by students from three local second level schools who were involved in our annual exhibition project, inspired by the exhibition Et si on s’était trompé? / What If We Got It Wrong? 

 

 

 

 

2016

 

1916 Centenary Project; One Hundred Years of Art and History; an exhibition by West Cork Primary School  

click the above link for more information

 

 

 

 

 

Surfaces and Depths Second-Level Schools Exhibition Artwork in the windows of Uillinn, by students from three local second level schools who were involved in our annual exhibition project, inspired by visits to the exhibition Unfold.

 

 

 

Primary Schools Festive Light Labyrinth Installation String sculptures suspended in Gallery 2 for the festive season. A collaboration between the pupils of 9 local Primary Schools, their teachers and Uillinn Schools Coordinator Alison Cronin, in partnership with the West Cork Education Centre.

 

 

2015

 

Flying Colours An installation by West Cork Primary Schools and Alison Cronin in partnership with the West Cork Education Centre.

Participating schools: Gaelscoil Dr Uí Shúilleabháin, Skibbereen, St James National School, Durrus, Rath National School, Baltimore, Scoil Náisúnta Rae na Scríne, Reenascreena, St Brendan's National School, Bantry, St Matthias National School, Ballydehob, Scoil an Chroí Naofa, Leap, Kilgarriffe National School, Clonakilty, Scoil Eoin, Innishannon, St Joseph's National School, Skibbereen, Abbeystrewery National School, Skibbereen, St Mary's Senior Girls National School, Dunmanway, Our Lady of Mercy National School, Bantry, Drimoleague Junior National School, St Patrick's Boys National School, Skibbereen, The Model School, Dunmanway, Scoil Bhríde, Ballydehob, St Joseph's National School, Clonakilty, Drimoleague Senior National School, Scoil Mhichíl Naofa, Bere Island

 

 

Connect Second-level Schools Exhibition Artwork in the Stairwell Gallery, by students from three local second level schools who were involved in our annual exhibition project, inspired by visits to the exhibitions Antrum, Daphne Wright and Disconnect, Bernadette Cotter, John Doherty and Sue Crellin MCarthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Primary Schools Festive Snowflake Installation More than 400 paper snowflakes in the windows of Gallery 2 for the festive season. A collaboration between the pupils of 6 local Primary Schools, their teachers and Uillinn Schools Coordinator Alison Cronin.  

 

 

 

 

 

Resources:

The following PDF's were written as guides for teachers involved in specific exhibitions and projects, however they can also be useful inspiration for teachers seeking new ideas and techniques for the visual arts classroom, and are collected here for use as an ongoing resource.

The Education Guide based on The Flying Colours Project, September 2014, can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on the Cork Printmakers exhibition Alphabet, September 2013, can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on the Mikala Dwyer exhibition Panto Collapsar, February 2013, can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on the James Hayes exhibition, The Essence of Taste, Autumn 2012, can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on the exhibition Dermot Seymour Selected paintings 1987 -2012, Autumn 2012, can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on Amy Walsh's exhibition Freefall Autumn 2011 can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on the Cutters exhibition from February 2011 can be viewed and downloaded as a PDF HERE

The Education Guide based on Ellen Driscoll's exhibition Fastforwardfossil Oct / Nov 2010 can be downloaded as a PDF HERE