Tuesday 18 May #BealtaineAtHome2021 sees the mailout of over two hundred booklets recording a project called ‘Bringing Art Home’. This imaginative project responded to the closure of Day Care Centres and the need to find a new way to connect culturally and socially with older people staying safe at home.
One of the artists Michael Greenlaw, from Leap, explains “The booklet celebrates the diverse range of artwork by older people in West Cork, over the past 5 months from drawings of the view from their window to stories of childhood, favourite poems and songs. There has been a tremendous willingness to take part – It shows the wealth of talent, breadth of knowledge and strong spirit contained within each person”
Artists Bénédicte Coleman, Sharon Dipity, Michael Greenlaw, Justin Grounds, Fiona Kelleher and Anne Harrington Rees were commissioned by Arts for Health Partnership Programme to devise a project, with each artist sharing their own specific creative expertise in music, poetry or visual arts through monthly mail out from Uillinn of packages, each containing a carefully considered letter from the artist with news, artworks, poetry, materials to take part from home and an invitation to respond.
The booklet is designed by Michael Greenlaw, who has been working as an artist in Day Care Centres as part of the Arts for Health Programme for three years. “Michael’s relationship, creative reputation and encouragement with the day care staff, participants and his artist peers, helped give everyone the confidence to publish their correspondence, poetry and artwork shared during this experimental postal project” remarked Programme Manager, Justine Foster, adding “the project was made possible with support from our partners in HSE and ETB, with a special award from Mitigating Against Educational Disadvantage Fund”
For more information on the project click here
Download the booklet here