"On Wings"
Art Exhibition by The Rural Training Centre, HSE
The HSE Rural Training Centre in association with the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life Turlough Park, Castlebar are currently hosting an exhibition in the museum Café Arts Space from Friday 18th July to 1st September, 2014.
Please click on the images to enlarge.
Ms. Rosa Meehan Curator of the Irish Folklore Collection at the Museum launched the “On Wings” exhibition. The exhibition will afterwards travel to Ballycroy National Park from 2nd September 2014 to 30th September, 2014.
This is a must see exhibition!
The participants include: service users supported by Patricia Youell, Crafts Instructor at the Rural Training Centre, Maura Gilligan, Arts Facilitator Sligo aided by local support staff at the museum.
The exhibition entitled “On Wings “grew organically out of the working environs and the everyday observations at the Rural Training Centre with each member of this diverse group contributing their piece in response to that setting.
The collective of work includes textile craft, bird sculptors, creative writing, The diversity of materials used varied from wool, linen, felt, silk, inks extracted from fresh flowers, pen & ink prints on linen.
Speaking of behalf of the group Crafts Instructor Patricia Youell says “this exhibition comes from working with service users through the seasonal changes that we experience from our time working out in the gardens and to digest and transform this experience into this visual collection, This would not happen without the enthusiasm and willingness of service users to engage, and for this I would like to pay them tribute”.
Centre Manager Andy Neary added; “The ethos of this exhibition and indeed all of our arts events is to “involve people in the arts, through expression and active participation”. It also encourages people to “engage as an experienced audience for all art forms and bring this to the wider public audience at the Museum Country Life Turlough”
He added; we would like to express our thanks to the service users , staff of the centre, museum and its staff who have supported us in this initiative, and like wise to Maura Gilligan for the creative writing input”.
The Rural Training Centre is part of the multi-disciplinary team support services of the HSE Mayo Mental Health Services providing support in the recovery process to persons with ongoing mental illness. It is widely recognised internationally the therapeutic value brought to the mental health of a service user in being associated with the growing season in a garden / horticulture setting. Service users who attend the centre generally speaking have such an appreciation for outdoor activity.
