Toberona Teens show artwork
The artworks created by teenagers from Toberona Youth Club as part of an outreach project with AAEX (Art as Exchange) were unveiled at the AAEX pop-up installation at 41-42 Clanbrassil St last Monday.
Four AAEX artists, Úna Curley, Bernhard Gaul, Omin and Michael Stafford had guided the teenagers through the creative processes of painting self-portraits in acrylic, mono-printing and screen printing, spray painting and creative stitching.
The work involved all stages of the respective processes from selecting photos and material, preparing textiles to print on to creating the finished art works, culminating in the work being shown alongside that of AAEX last week.
The project, which took place over the course of a number of months, was supported by Create Louth and the Louth Creative
Ireland Community Grant Fund/Louth County Council. Creative Ireland is the Government’s Legacy Programme for Ireland 2016 – a five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which places creativity at the centre of public policy, with the goals of enabling the creative potential of every child and enabling creativity in every community.
AAEX is a dedicated group of over 30 local artists, facilitated and supported by Creative Spark, who over the last three years have provided a variety of local arts initiatives, many of which involved bringing art into community spaces.
Their exhibition in 41-42 Clanbrassil St was accompanied by an art trail taking in Clarke Railway Station, the Desmense, the Long Walk Shopping Centre and the County Museum.
They also presented a discussion in conjunction with curator Anne Mager and Marcel Krueger of the corridor.ie on what needs to be done to support visual artists and other creatives living and working in Co Louth with a panel of speakers including artist Una Curley, Tom Muckian of Roe River Books and a member of the BIDS board, and artist and lecturer Paraic McQuaid, who is originally from Bellurgan.