Art Club is a term time after schools programme for children aged 7 to 11 years old, designed to be an enjoyable and challenging exploration into visual art practices. 

The children work with a Project Assistant Caoimhe Pendred who acts as the group constant and supports a number of visiting artists each week in the delivery of a short project, usually two to three weeks long. Caoimhe is a visual artists and has been developing her participatory proactive over a number years, so she is able to support the visiting artists whilst building a relationship with the children and holding the group dynamic.

Approximately five visiting artists per term are each asked to develop a short series of workshops tailored to the group, which shares an aspect of their artistic practice and guides the young children through visual art methods and practices.

West Cork Arts Centre gallery acts as a critical resource for the children throughout the course. They are regularly invited into the gallery space, making it a space where they can become comfortable in the exploration of visual art and a space they use as a resource to support the generation of their ideas.

The children experiment with different aspects of drawing and marking making referring to the work of the visiting artists and their approach to drawing as a guide. They build individual portfolios/sketch books filled with ideas and experiments. Each visiting artist will offer the group something different. Artists are asked to focus on sharing their creative process and experiences.

Above all the sessions are meant to be enjoyable and inclusive.  The children are encouraged to experiment, discover self expression and use their imaginations, with emphasis on participation without intimidation or pressure.

The programme has been running for about four year in its current structure and has welcomed numerous artists including Marie Cullen, John Simpson, Paul Cialis, Tess Leak, Susan Montgomery, Seán O’Laoghaire, Kathleen O’Leary, Jim Turner, Toma McCullim, Thomas Madajczak, Sarah O’Brien, Becky Keyser, Jane Lee and more.

here is a breif outline of this terms explorations:

Monday 16 January – Marie Cullen Winter forest on a Hillside

Drawing in your mind, not seeing the story unfolding on the paper until the image is complete. Using oil pastel resist, collage and ink the children worked layer upon layer to create a deep forest image, sharing in Maries most resent experiments with techniques in her own work.

Monday 23 January – Toma McCullim The Photograph my Brain Took! 

This weeks art club artist Toma McCullim is asking participants to rummage in the cupboard and find some old photos  . Maybe its your dad when he was your age ? Maybe its your mum in her nappy! Maybe its granny sitting on a donkey ! It doesn’t matter if you don’t even know who the photo is of. Just check with whoever is charge of the photo album in your house that you can take the photo to use in this weeks project. Toma’s work engages with questions like, ‘what does this art object do’; ‘how does it hold meaning’? Her work places the deeply personal in the landscape of the wider material culture, stitching fragments of individual testimonies into acts of public witness.         

Monday 30 January & 6 February – Jim Turner The Bug Hotel

Jim Turner is a ceramicist whose work is currently exhibiting as part of the West Cork Inspires group show at West Cork Arts Centre. 
He is highly productive and his vessels vary from the practical to ethereal. He set the participants the challenge of creating a minuet creature…a bug 
like creature and the world it lives in.  

Monday 13 & 20 February – Paul Cialis (no Caoimhe on 13th) Weird and Wonderful

Paul Cialis artwork is an imaginative and playful commentary on life, his workshops with Arts Club will reflect that process.  The workshops will be sculpture based and utilise recycled materials; using old, broken or unwanted toys participants will create weird and wonderful creatures and other-world oddities referencing some of Paul’s more recent work, which is created using this method....eg dolls, old plastic action figures, broken cars or barbie bits etc ...Well, anything really ....And get ready to be amazed at what they’ll come up with !

Monday 27 February – Michael Ray Some things are too small to see

There are many things that live in our world which we can’t see, simply because they are too small. But with modern technology they become visible. In this workshop we will look at Diatoms they live in water and soil and help us stay alive. Diatoms have interesting shapes and textures. This workshop aims to explore these microscopic creatures through mould-making techniques with clay and plaster.

Monday 5 & 12 March – Kathy O’Leary Gestures in Motion 

Following Kathy O’Leary’s more recent investigations the participants will explore the light and line of gestural movement. The children will begin working as a group, drawing large scale with gestural movements using charcoal on paper. These images will be projected and the children will re-work the line drawing individually. Starting out with their own drawings and they will then take turns to move around to the next drawing, implementing different mind and hands co-ordination techniques. This idea of gestural movement will then be developed using two cameras set-up in the space on tripods. The children will make small slow movement gestures to create photographic images then edited into Stop-motion videos.

Excluding 19 March 

Monday 26 March – (no Caoimhe) Choowawaa Tess Leak Constellation Installation

For this session we will transform the workspace into a universe of exploding stars, orbiting planets, colorful nebula and colliding comets. We will each create a number of drawings on circular paper to be suspended in the space- the more we make the better so we will be working quickly with lots of energy! We will then photograph our artwork before it is turned back into an empty space.