Mountshannon Arts Festival 2020
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Art Trail 2020

Art in Mountshannon village

Walk with us through the art and artefacts that have been gathered over the years by the Mountshannon Arts Festival and Community. Download our map and discover a new dimension to your 5km radius. There is lots to see and surprise you - we’d be delighted to hear your thoughts or send us a photo mountshannonfestival@gmail.com or on instagram #mountshannonartsfestival.
Download your map, 
Print it (A4, landscape), Walk and enjoy !
map_art.pdf
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A Walk in My Shoes
Listening while walking

Basic tools for Soundwalking, click on the links below to access the toolkits
​
Sound Walking Toolkit
A Basic Toolkit for Soundmapping
Sound Journaling Toolkit
This walk kicks off in front of the childcare centre...It follows through Mountshannon village, meanders through Aistear Park, drifts along the Harbour, and concludes at the end of the village. 
Mayfly and Ploughing ahead will unfortunately not be at our rendez-vous this Wireless weekend. Promise soon....
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The Wren
​Nathalie El baba - 2017

Mural on childcare centre (2017)

My interpretation of the brief led me to create an artwork that was composed of bright colours and organic shapes, contrasting it with the angular architecture and distinct whiteness of the childcare centre’s walls. The art work was required to express the lively energy and nourishing ethos at the heart of the centre. 

The nasturtiums were chosen not just for their bold beauty but also because they are an edible and familiar plant, often grown in home gardens. They encapsulated many elements important in the nurturing of children. The wren, of course, was chosen to represent the young child. This small little bird, at home in the undergrowth, hopping and darting low to the ground. 

Creating a work, on site in a public space, gives rise to an engagement with the community that does not exist when I work alone in my studio. The development of the work is seen daily by parents dropping children, residents in the street, centre staff on breaks, those helping me with ladders, and passers by - and conversations had with all of them! This engagement becomes part of the process and, I believe, builds a sense of ownership within the community to the work itself.
Nathalie El Baba
 
Nathalie El Baba uses the word connection when describing what drives her practice. Her artworks are responsive, and influenced by her interaction with other people and their stories, as well as her own personal history of migration. Her subject matter is concerned with both movement, and identity of place, observed within the social, physical and emotional landscape. 
 
Nathalie was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1971. During the civil war her family moved to England. Based in Ireland since 1990, she has been living and working as an artist in Co. Clare for many years.
She holds a B.A. in Art and Design, and a Certificate in Youth Arts from NUI Maynooth. As a facilitator her aim is to use visual art form as a language to cross barriers within community and public spaces.
 
Nathalie El Baba
Visual Artist and Facilitator
www.creativearts.ie 
087 615 9466


Signpost mountshannon village
​Mark wilson - 2018

A welcome addition to Mountshannon Village landmarks, Mark’s creation, made in collaboration with local school children and the Tidy Town’s committee.
​Mark lives in Mountshannon. He trained in Ceramics, Blacksmithing & Green Wood Working in college and has since established a name for himself as Ireland's quirkiest artist.  His immense passion for community and for passing on his skills to people of all ages lights the fires for all his creative projects. https://www.facebook.com/MarkWilsonArtistIreland/videos/3197704043625065/ 
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Ploughing Ahead
​Mark wilson - 2019

Bench of iron and wood. Mark Wilson, 2019.  (To be placed in the Aistear in June 2020). Bringing new life to remnants of local, heritage horse-drawn ploughs and wood from the village, Mark created this bench with community groups in and around Mountshannon, including transition year students from Scariff Community College.  Mark lives in Mountshannon. He trained in Ceramics, Blacksmithing & Green Wood Working in College and has since established a name for himself as Ireland's quirkiest artist.  His immense passion for community and for passing on his skills to people of all ages light the fires for all his creative projects. https://www.facebook.com/MarkWilsonArtistIreland/videos/3197704043625065/

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mayfly
​leanne mclaughlin - 2019

The mayfly has a special relationship to Mountshannon and Lough Derg.   It is a yearly visitor and lures many locals to the shores of the lake each May.  Continuing on from our long-term plan to commission, annually, a significant work of street art for Mountshannon and the surrounding area, The Mayfly was commissioned by the Mountshannon Arts Festival to acknowledge the long connection with fishing and the natural beauty of Lough Derg, as well as the importance of our connection to nature and biodiversity, the interdependence of the human being and our environment.  Continuing our long term plan to commission, annually, a significant work of street art for Mountshannon and the surrounding area, we have asked Leanne McLaughlin to create a Mayfly sculpture. Leanne, a Derry native, lives and works in Donegal.
 

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Crannóg Ceoil
​paul berg - 2017

Crannóg Ceoil is a work in progress, each phase enhancing life in Mountshannon Harbour.  In 2017 Paul constructed a wooden raft as the main structure of this 3-octave organ. In 2018, he worked on the stunning mosaics on the island. Eventually, the island will have organ pipes with a pulley and lever system, where music will play with the motion of the wind and waves or created manually by rocking this ingenious interactive musical island. Musical performances are part of the life of ‘An Crannóg Ceoil’.   https://paulberg.wixsite.com/paulberg
 
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Bird - 1981
​Conor fallon (1939 - 2007)

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Aosdána Member Honorary member of the R.H.A, Oireachtas gold medal for sculpture  1980
Born in Dublin, to renowned Athenry poet and playwright Padraic Fallon and Dubliner Dorothea Maher,  Fallon is one  of the finest Irish sculptors of the twentieth century.
Reared on a farm in Co Wexford, his home was always full of visiting writers, musicians and painters includingTony O'Malley and the poet Austin Clarke
As a child he often copied drawings of birds from wildlife books and he began to paint in 1957 at TCD,while studying natural science,which he soon left  turning his attention to fine art. 
In 1964 He moved to Penzance, Cornwall, where he joined the St Ives group of artists, which included family  friend, the  Kilkenny painter Tony O'Malley.  
After marrying Welsh-born painter Nancy Wynne-Jones in 1966 he took up dairy farming.
"The milking of cows and the shaping of sleek, modernist sculpture went hand in hand for one of Ireland's leading sculptors" 

In 1972, the family returned to Kinsale Co .Cork and in the late eighties they finally settled in Wicklow.
Fallon threw himself full time into sculpture, working mainly in steel and occasionally in cast  bronze. His subjects were primarily wildlife, particularly hares, horses, fish and birds (all part of the Celtic tradition). 
He retained a passion for birds of prey, their balance of taut energy in stillness with rapid movement of attack being perfect examples for the clean, aerodynamic lines of his work
So it is fitting that this piece looks out on to the nesting area on Bushy Island that  the White Tailed Sea Eagles have successfully chosen as  one of their places to re -establish themselves in Ireland. One can only speculate what the artist would have thought about Mountshannon`s White Tailed Sea Eagles and the fact that his sculpture was sited here years before their arrival to commemorate Mountshannon’s success winning the Tidy Towns competition in 1981.The shield in this piece often captures light from  the setting sun coming from the direction of Inis Cealtra, thus nicknamed the Firebird 
​His larger pieces include : the wonderful “Pegasus”  sculptures commissioned for the Irish Independent's building  beside the N7 at City West with the  three iconic gigantic  bronze horses with stainless steel wings , the 7 metre high Singing Bird at the Irish Life building in Dublin,  the beautiful Bird of Hope in St Patrick's Hospital, Kilmainham,and his Singing Bird, at Enniscorthy bridge in Co Wexford.

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Sadie Monks
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Paul Berg
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Sam Gaine
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Sean Durak

Mountshannon Eagles
Mountshannon Harbour
Sam Gaine, Paul Berg, Sadie monks, Sean Durak

Four local artists, Sadie Monks, Paul Berg, Séan Durack and Sam Gaine were commissioned to paint and sculpt original artwork to celebrate the return of the White-tailed Sea Eagles to Lough Derg.   These works are on permanent display at the Mountshannon harbour.
 


Sanctuary of Free sounds
​Slavek Kwi - 2020

Sanctuary of Free Sounds. 2020.
​There is a small peninsula in Mountshannon Harbour that is becoming a sanctuary of silence, a haven for free sounds. You are invited to come and listen to the sounds around you as they are, to let your visions of freedom unfold in silence, and to co-create this sanctuary. freesoundssanctuary@gmail.com 
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Returning Swallows
​Nathalie El Baba - 2018

The theme for the Arts Festival in 2018 was ‘Borders’. My piece, Returning Swallows, was in response to this, and site specific to the red door of the barn. I have often incorporated large scale birds in my mural work, and have used the swallows as a symbolic representation of migration in this one. It is always joyful to see them return. They reflect not only their own migratory journey but also the journeys so many of us have chosen or been forced to make. How many of us will never return home? What role have borders played in our own lives?
 
 
 
 
 
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The stag
Donnacha cahill - 2018

The Stag’s striking stature draws as you approach the village from the east. Its antlers are adorned with leaves which symbolise the contribution each community group makes to the village.

​After receiving a degree in Fine Art Sculpture in 2004, I worked in a variety of jobs from construction work to metal fabrication. In 2006, I set up my own business called Red Hill Sculpture which specialises in bespoke metalwork in which I design and make contemporary gates, staircases and railings. Since then, my work has headed in a more creative direction. I have been involved with many different public sculpture commissions through out county Galway. I have also been employed by different schools to give creative workshops in design and creating sculpture. TheElectric Picnic commissioned me in 2011 and 2012 to make large-scale installations for the festival, one of which received an award in 2011. I have been asked to work with the European Recycling Platform, a pan-European organisation, on a regular basis to work on installations, sculptures and campaigns to highlight the responsible disposal of electrical waste. I’m also a board member of the Irish Artist Blacksmith Association. The most important aspect of my practice is creating work for myself. I have received bursaries from the Galway Arts Office for some of these personal projects. I have exhibited in such galleries as The Kenny Gallery, Galway. The Town House, Monaghan, The Titanic Centre, Belfast, as well as exhibiting my large scale work at such festivals as The Electric Picnic, Puck Fair, Killorglin, The Galway Volvo Ocean Race, The Oranmore Celtic Shore Festival, The Cork Cycling Festivaland the National Ploughing Championships   

http://donnachacahill.wixsite.com/donnachacahill
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