County Clare Arts Service: Year of Craft 2011

Clare Arts Office, along with key partners in the county, is leading the Clare celebrations and the following events and activities have been organised. A number of Clare artists are also taking part in local and national events which are also listed below.

November 2011:

24th November 2011
Meet the Maker Session
Sean Lemass Public Library, Shannon

Pauline Fitzgerald worked with local ladies in the Shannon ‘Meet the Maker’ session, creating wonderful textile pieces in their workshop.
Photographs of the event

18th November 2011
Meet the Maker Session
Scariff Library.

A ‘Meet the Maker’ session will take place in selected libraries where you can come and meet the craftworkers to discuss how they approach their craft and, in some instances, see demonstrations of their work. In Scariff Library, Friday November 18th Lynn Kenny meets students from Scariff Community College at 11.30am

Ennis November 17th, 2011
Photographing Craftworks with Ben Russell
Glor,

As part of our activities for the 2011 Year of Craft, Clare Arts Office is delighted to present a two day workshop with renowned photographer Ben Russell on how to photograph Craftworks, FREE of charge.

Photographing Craftworks with Ben Russell: All craftworkers benefit from understanding how to photograph their work. Good photographs make a huge difference to the impact of portfolios and promotional material, and provide an essential record of past work. Key publications may require professional photography, but competent documentary photography covers many of an artists needs, and the basics are not difficult to learn.
Ben Russell’s one-day workshop demonstrates techniques and equipment used for taking high quality photographs and teaches participants how to take competent photographs of their work using modest equipment. The workshop also covers some general principals of digital photography.
The workshop is for craftworkers producing 3-dimensional work.
It is suitable for complete beginners, presentations and a demonstration of set-up and lighting are combined with practical participation. Printed reference material is included.

Workshop content:
- Equipment requirements for publication-quality shots
- Minimum equipment for good record and portfolio shots
- Set-up and lighting for wall-hung work and three dimensional work
- Step-by-step checklist for taking good photographs
- How to record accurate colours
- Introduction to photography software
- Understanding image size and format
- Downloading images to a computer
- Emailing photographs
- Digital storage and backups

Requirements Participants should bring:
- Camera
- FULL camera manual (available online, if lost!)
- Fully charged or spare batteries
- Notebook
- Tripod (if available)
- Table-top easel (if available)
- Small spirit-level (if available)

Ben Russell is a skilled illustrative photographer, photography teacher and artist/ craft-worker. He has had several thousand photographs published, including images for exhibition catalogues and brochures, magazine features and covers and photographic illustration for 3 books.
Ben has developed and delivered workshops and classes for National Sculpture
Factory, Crafts Council of Ireland, Cork County Arts Office, West Corks Arts Centre,
West Cork Development Partnership, County Cork VEC, Rossa College, and
Beara Arts Week.
As a fine-woodworker, Ben has undertaken many public and private commissions for sculpture, furniture, architectural woodwork and letter-carving.
BOOKED OUT!

November 14th – December 2nd, 2011
Contemporary Crafts Book Promotion

The Crafts Council of Ireland and Craft Northern Ireland have designated 2011 as Year of Craft. The year marks the 40th anniversary of the Crafts Council of Ireland and is being celebrated through a diverse range of dynamic events and programmes to showcase the very best of craft made on the island of Ireland.Clare County Library and Clare County Arts Office have teamed up to celebrate the 2011 Year of Craft and have organised events throughout the month of November until December 2nd. A book promotion on Contemporary Crafts will run and all branch libraries will have a number of books on display along with a recommended reading list.

In tandem with the book promotion, craft work from the Clare Contemporary Craft Exhibition, which was held in Glór over the summer, will tour to the larger branches: Ennis, Ennistymon, Kilrush, Scariff, and Shannon. The craftworkers exhibiting in the libraries are
Pauline Fitzgerald,
Lynn Kenny
Nicola Henley
Hannah Arnup
and Stefanie Ford.

14th November 2011
Web Design Programme for Clare Craftworkers

As part of “Year of Craft 2011? Clare County Enterprise Board is organising a Web Design Programme for Clare Craftworkers.This course aims to assist craftworkers to design, develop and manage their own website. Aimed at those with limited or no experience of website management, the course guides you through the setting up of a website, customising your website to suit your speciic needs and building your web profile.The course takes the form of a morning tutorial followed by a hands-on lab session in the afternoons, where one-to-one advice and assistance is offered to participants.The course starts on Monday, November 14th, 2011.
Full details are available from http://www.clareceb.ie/training/web-design-course-for-craftworkers/
For further information contact Clare Enterprise Board Clareceb@Clareceb.ie or call (065) 684 1922.
BOOKED OUT!

10th-13th November 2011
An Exhibition of Textiles by Members of the Crafts Council of Ireland at the Knitting and Stitching Show
Clare artist Nicola Henley

The Crafts Council of Ireland co-ordinated the 2nd exhibition of textiles in conjunction with our GANS (Guilds, Associations, Networks and Societies) members at the Knitting and Stitching Show at the RDS in Dublin from 10th-13th November.
The theme for the exhibition was the sea and the underwater world; its colour, texture, pattern and force. Work took the form of a literal or abstract interpretation.
For more information: http://www.craftinireland.com/events/details/seascapes/

July 2011:

Celebrating the best in craftwork Clare Champion, Thursday, 14 July 2011

Contemporary Crafts in Clare
Clare Arts Office and glór are delighted to present a major exhibition of contemporary craft work from Clare, in the glór gallery from July 15th – August 27th, 2011. Celebrating the 2011 Year of Craft, this exhibition highlights the wealth of creative talent abundant in the craft sector in the county. The Crafts Council of Ireland and Craft Northern Ireland have designated 2011 as Year of Craft as 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the Crafts Council of Ireland. A call to artists went out earlier in the year and a large volume of submissions were received in a variety of media. In keeping with the intention of showcasing the very best of contemporary Clare craft, ceramicist Rob D’Eath from Co. Galway was invited to independently choose the works for exhibit. Rob focussed mainly on ceramics and textiles, although jewellery and wood work also feature predominantly. A dozen craftspeople have been selected from twenty seven submissions. Located throughout the county, the chosen craftspeople are Hannah Arnup, Pauline Fizgerald, Stephanie Ford, Helen Griffin, Brian Hackett, Nicola Henley, Lynn Kenny, Bláithín Ní Leannáin, Noreen Ramsay, Jane Seymour, Ilsa Thielan and Ray Walsh. It is the organisers’ intention to accompany the exhibition with artists’ talks and demonstrations. On conclusion of the exhibition, some of the pieces on show will then tour to selected libraries in the county, where they will be the feature of book promotions and further craft activities later in the year.
For further information contact
Sinéad Cahill at glór, Ennis
Tel: 065 6845370 email: info@glor.ie Website: www.glor.ie
o r
Siobhán Mulcahy at Clare Arts Office
Tel: 065 6899091 email: arts@clarelibrary.ie Website: www.clarelibrary.ie/arts.htm

June 2011:

Artist in Schools Scheme 2011 - September 2010 to June 2011

Tulla Stables Studios Artists Exhibit in Glor - June - July 2011
Clare Arts Office is delighted to present an exhibition by past and present residents of the Tulla Stables Studios in glor. Featuring an eclectic mix of artistc, craft and design work, this exhibition will showcase work being currently created in the county as well as that previously supported by Clare County Arts Office. You can follow details of this exhibition on Facebook – Tulla Stables Studios

More information here.

April 2011:

Selling at Markets and Fairs - April 2011
Clare County Enterprise Board
Businesses that have traditionally operated a business through retail and now find that they are selling more at markets and fairs than in their shops Individuals newly set up in business looking for cost effective ways to sell their produce without having to pay high rents and rates The aim of this programme is to assist participants in developing and improving their sales and communication skills at market and fairs to increase sales and turnover.
At the end of this course participants will:
Have tips for getting noticed
Learned how to overcome barriers to making a sale
Learned the signals to identify when a customer is interested
How to discuss price
Close the sale
Gather information for future promotions
Venue: Woodstock Hotel, Enis
Date: Monday, 18th April, 2011.
Time: 2pm to 5pm
Cost: €20
For further information contact:
Lucy Reidy, Training Co-ordinator,Clare County Enterprise Board, Enterprise House, Mill Road, Ennis, Co. Clare.
Tel. 065-6841922 Fax. 065-6841887
www.clareceb.ie
lreidy@clareceb.ie

March 2011:

Crafted Creatures at the Ark (Dublin) - March 2011
Clare artists Jane Murtagh and Krystyna Pomeroy had work selected by curator Brian Kennedy for this exhibition. For further information visit http://www.craftinireland.com/events/details/crafted-creatures-at-the-ark1/

For further information on Arts Office events for the Year of Craft 2011 contact: arts@clarelibrary.ie.
Tel: 065 6899091

For information on events happening throughout the country go to
http://www.craftinireland.com/