Students take on ‘Everyday Blues’ in new exhibition

A group of sixth-year students has curated an exhibition featuring artworks from the Arts Council collection to go on display in Letterkenny.

Fifteen students from across County Donegal were recently invited to participate in an intense two-day workshop at the Regional Cultural Centre as part of the Early Career Curator-in-Residence programme, Swallowing Geography, curated by Rachel Botha.

The participating students came from Gairmscoil Mhic Diarmada, Arranmore, Royal and Prior Comprehensive School, Raphoe, Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola (PCC), Falcarragh, Loreto Community School, Milford, Coláiste Ailigh, Leitir Ceanainn, Loreto Letterkenny and Deele College, Raphoe.

Rachel was awarded a mentorship residency in 2022, supported by Arts Council Ireland and Donegal County Council, and has been working with leading Irish curators and develop a multi-venue exhibition and education programme using works from the Arts Council Collection and a number of Donegal-based contemporary artists. The exhibition will take place in October and November 2022 at the RCC and Glebe House and Gallery.

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The workshop at the RCC was facilitated by Ms Botha and Tipperary artist and curator Leah Corbett and also included an art-writing session by Ramelton-based poet, Emily S Cooper.

Rachel said: “This was a vital programme for sixth-year students to engage and curate with our public Arts Council Collection. Everyday Blues responds to life in Donegal from the perspective of a young adult, the artworks relate to the stress of studying and the comfort of home.

“The title of this exhibition, Everyday Blues, was derived from two common themes we saw throughout the works. The former being that the shared subject matter was everyday, normal matter, and the latter being blue and monotony being a common factor, in the literal and metaphorical.

“We had lots of chats about art, wrote a curatorial manifesto, learnt about art-writing, installed an exhibition, wrote the exhibition text, designed the handout and created marketing content… in just two days! Thank you for being such an amazing and hard-working group.”

The exhibition features works from the Arts Council collection by Pauline Bewick, Carey Clarke, Felicity Clear, Hannah Fitz, Margaret Fitzgibbon, Martin Gale, Patrick Jolley and Ciarán Murphy.

The Everyday Blues exhibition will go on display at the Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny’s Gallery 2, will officially open on Saturday 15th October, 6pm to 9pm, and be on display until Thursday, November 24.