ART WITH A HEART RAISES CHARITY FUNDS
Creativity all around the county
‘ART WITH A HEART’ is the name of a countywide project raising money for Relay for Life and the Irish Cancer Society and helping up to 100 people of all ages stay creative during the lockdown.
Students who take classes with artist Helen McLean at WWETB workshops in Ferns, Enniscorthy and Kilmore Quay and her own studio in Wexford were left disappointed when the sessions were cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions and attempts to hold classes online proved frustrating and unsatisfactory.
Helen had planned to enter an art group with the name ‘Art with a Heart’ in the Relay for Life in Wexford during the summer and put her thinking cap on after it was changed to a virtual event.
She asked her students, who range in age from their 30s to 80s, to paint or create a 10cm square the size of a coaster, with a heart as a central outline, with the aim of putting them together in a larger artwork which will go on public display later in 2020 and into next year.
The completed squares were posted on a Facebook page, with members of the public invited to choose one for a donation of €20 and have it dedicated to the memory of a loved one who has died.
The response took Helen and the creators by surprise, with more than €6,000 raised from the initiative so far.
‘I would say that about 50% of the students are cocooning with the majority age profile of my classes being over 60. I tried some online classes in the beginning but a lot of people don’t get the technogy. In an actual class, I would go around individually to people as I’m teaching but you can’t do that online and I was getting quite frustrated’, Helen explained.
‘I knew Relay for Life wouldn’t be happening but the Irish Cancer Society would still need funds so I came up with the idea of the Art with a Heart fundraiser. The coaster was the perfect thing for everyone to use because people could still buy them in a supermarket but friends and relatives of the group who are good with carpentery also made wooden ones which I left in a box outside my door for people to collect. Some students then dropped the finished ones back for me to put up on Facebook.’
‘ The group really took on the concept and were very enthusiastic about it. Some people created one square, others made lots of them. It didn’t matter what theme they chose so long as the central image was heart. You could knit, crochet or sew them if you didn’t want to paint.’
‘ The idea was to get everyone creating and communicating’, said Helen, who has 14 different WhatsApp groups running.
When the squares went up online with a request for donations in return for personal dedications to loved ones, there was a heartwarming response with more than 300 sold.
‘ They are not just for people who have died from cancer, but anyone who has passed away. Each piece is a kind of memorial to someone who has died.’
‘When they started to sell, members of the group got a real lift from their artwork being chosen by someone for a loved one. At the outset, I gave people some themes because these are tiny memorials and they are going to be precious to people.’
‘We had some very emotional texts from people when they were sending in the dedications to place at the bottom of the squares. We had people buying them for babies and children that they had lost. Each one is like a little icon with a story to go with it, particularly at this time when people are being reflective’
Helen hopes to create a large modular artwork from the ‘Art with a Heart’ squares, like a painted quilt and would like to exhibit it publicly in different places before finding a permanent home for the work.
There are still squares available and anyone interested who is not on Facebook, can email Helen at hmclarts@hotmail.com.