2008/2009 Portable Histories
Description of the 2008/2009 Art Alongside Project, Portable HistoriesArt Alongside continued to work in partnership with the Irish Museum of Modern Art National Programme for this project. The last project was entitled Portable Histories. Participating schools visited the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), where Museum facilitators explained some of the works in the National Collection to the class groups.
The Art Alongside artists then explored the theme of Portable Histories in the classroom. Personal or imaginary histories, memories, journeys and stories were explored in the classroom in a variety of 2D and 3D media. A selection of the work from these projects was shown in the county-wide exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre, alongside work of the project artists, and works on the same theme from the IMMA collection. The project artists also mounted an exhibition of the work of all participating children in their schools.
Brief Description of Main Projects in Participating Schools:
Loreto NS Gorey:
The Loreto 4th class girls visited IMMA, and designed and made bags inspired by their favourite IMMA work. They created the ‘contents’, including old letters, shopping lists, diaries, etc., all of which gave an imaginary history of the bag’s owner.
CBS NS New Ross:
The 4th and 5th classes designed time machines, their drivers, and their luggage.
St Canice’s New Ross:
The 6th classes visited IMMA and saw the work called ‘Alice Liddel’ by Vic Muniz. The children created self portraits out of their own collected objects. They developed this further by texturing and painting papers and cutting them into small pieces and assembled them into large images inspired by the 4 elements.
Barntown NS:
5th and 6th classes visited IMMA.
6th class designed a suitcase for the ‘Journey of the Rest of their Lives’ The suitcases were connected to the Colin Harrison suitcase ‘Portable History of the World’.
5th class designed and painted open top tourist buses and created imaginary characters for a ‘History of Art Bus Tour’.
Mercy School John’s Rd.
Both classes visited IMMA.6th class worked on suitcases for ‘Journeys of the Rest of their Lives’ and painted ‘Future Snapshots’, giant self-portraits on tinfoil. 5th class created ’Imaginary Characters’ and filled suitcases to illustrate their ‘Secret Personality’.
Coolcotts NS:
5th class worked on papier mache airplanes decorated with aerial views of an imaginary journey. Themes included fantastic birds, snow landscapes.
Coolcotts Parents’ Group:
This group worked on a ceramic project beginning with pottery to gain skills and confidence and progressing on to some sculptural ceramics based on personal themes individual to each participant. Each person encountered the creative side of him/herself, which was a new experience for all.
