Interview with Mufutau Yusuf

Mufutau Yusuf initially made a substantial breakthrough in professional dance with a role in David Scott’s Fall and Recover in 2011. Then aged only 18, he had received the call up as a late replacement for one of the dancers who had pulled out. The show was performed in New York City and attracted glowing notices for the young dancer in outlets such as the New York Times, who wrote at the time that it was hard to look elsewhere on that stage.

Since then Yusuf has kept himself busy with pursuing and completing formal dance training in Salzburg alongside working professionally in the US, Ireland and various other parts of Europe and even keeping busy during the pandemic through film projects with the Irish Arts Centre and Centre Culturel Irlandais.

Last month during his residency at the Uillinn I met with the dancer, who also goes by the name Junior, to discuss his journey from Co. Meath, to where he moved from Nigeria at age 9, to the present, where he divides his time between Ireland and Belgium. I also got to ask him about the development of his new dance work-in-progress, currently titled ‘Impasse’ as well as his long term and short term inspirations in his dance career.

Mufutau Yusuf. Image credit: Jean-Nicolas Schoeser

I was interested in how the title ‘Impasse’ related to the themes of representation and misrepresentation- themes that Junior aimed to explore in the work- so I asked about this relation and what inspired the connection. “The very first title I had before ‘Impasse’ was Deep End as in ‘the deep end of a pool,’” he shares, “and the older I got, the more reflective I began to be of my own experiences because I moved to Ireland when I was 9 and growing up I realised that the representation I had was very few and the few that I had were very misleading.”

Junior explains that a lot of the representations of Black experiences available were those coming from the United States, offering an example of hip hop music and videos in his teenage years, which was something that he liked but still felt a sense of disconnect as to whether these images represented his own experience.

“Their Black experience was very specific to the United States and doesn’t reflect on my own Black experience in Ireland,” he notes, “There was a kind of a lack of representation there and then there was misrepresentation in relation to how I observed the way I was perceived growing up, first in the countryside and then in the small town where I went to school.”

His plan is for the piece to be a duet with colleague and fellow dancer, Lucas Katangila, who is a Congolese national who lives in Belgium. His aim is to focus on the multiplicity of the Black experience and the Black diaspora in Europe. “I wanted to understand that better,” he says, “Both personally and in collaboration with others.”

“Lucas had a different experience to me being a Black person in Europe”, he elaborates, “Or talking to people who are second generation, third generation Black Europeans and trying to gather all the experiences and collate them into an understanding of what is that complexity that comes with representation of Black bodies in a Western society.” 

The theme of visibility and invisibility is something else he is focusing on in this work and Junior proposes, “It’s also about trying to navigate the different spaces where we can exist and understanding the tools that we have to represent ourselves- to make ourselves seen. And that’s the other thing that I’m looking at: the idea of visibility, of what is visible and what is made visible and what is invisible and what is made invisible. The aspect of making something visible and of making something invisible is not the same as something that is visible by itself or invisible by itself. So trying to understand how that works and where the power lies.”

In shifting focus from his original title to that of ‘Impasse,’ Junior explains that it can be viewed as when you play a game and there are no more moves left. “That’s how I sometimes felt in periods of my life but also now as an adult where the tools that I have to reflect on those things have evolved somehow,” he says, “and through those reflections I started to see things in new ways and much more nuanced ways regarding my life as a Black person in Ireland but also in Europe because I now live in Brussels.”

Brussels was not Junior’s first European destination, having spent 4 years training in Salzburg, Austria. I asked him if staying and training in Ireland had been an option would he have taken it and he is emphatic that he would have, however, he didn’t think he would have found the education he was seeking here. ”I was looking for a very comprehensive dance education which entails a high level of training but then also a diversity in the kind of information that you got.”

He observes that something that European schools do differently to Irish training centres is that they bring teachers from other countries to teach. “Having an educational system that would bring dance professionals from outside of Ireland and bring them here to teach,” He says, “ that is what I had in Salzburg. All the teachers I had were from all over the world and they were coming there to teach.” He singles out the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick as one of the most comprehensive dance educations in Ireland and a great school.

I asked Junior if his professional debut caused a shift in his mindset in knowing that he belonged on these stages and his response is casual and pragmatic, “The reviews and performing on a big stage like that in La Mama in New York. It’s a great venue and it was very glamorous somehow but that went side-by-side with what went on in the studio.” 

He credits growing up in a family where creative expression and creativity was encouraged and witnessing his artist father’s creative streak inspired him to tap into his own creativity in molding his own career. “I didn’t have any training before. I got thrown into it somehow and it was probably a very pivotal moment in my trajectory as a dancer.” he reflects, “I think that experience is what reinforced my desire to be a dancer working on such a professional level, and then also working with great artists, understanding how they work and also how they used their body, it really reinforced that desire to be a dancer and when I really thought about seeking out a dance education.”

“It’s a bit like you usually do a dance education and then you have a career after that but I kind of had a bite of a career before the education and I think it pushed me forward.” he muses, recalling that during his training in Salzburg he was still being offered work. “I was involved in The Right Piece, also with John Scott, which was in 2013, and I was in my second year. I had to beg my director to let me do that piece and go to New York again.”

Mufutau Yusuf. Image credit: Jean-Nicolas Schoeser

He viewed the opportunity to break away from his training to take on sporadic work such as this as a privilege, admitting that at times it felt like a lifeline in a way. “It was not an easy four years living in Salzburg where…,” he pauses to look for the right phrasing and then laughs as if there’s just no other way to put it, “…it was not very friendly towards people like me or toward anyone who was not Austrian for that matter.“

Junior counts among his blessings during the four years of dance training in Austria, the beautiful landscapes surrounding him and the incredible nature within it. “Nonetheless spending four years in training requires a strong will”, he says, “You have to have a strong motivation and I think part of the motivation was wanting to work with my body, wanting to be a dancer, but then also working.”

I was also curious about the Observations dance film he did in 2020 with the Irish Arts Centre so I asked Junior if he would have moved toward dance and film naturally or if it was more of a COVID contingency move. He responds that he would most likely have gravitated to it naturally having always had an interest in film. ”I’m a big film head. I watch a lot of arthouse films and I focus a lot on cinematography. It’s a big thing for me,” he shares. 

“Even when I was in school, there was a quarry near my house in Meath and I used to go this quarry. Everyday, usually in the evening, I would walk my dog there and I would just be dancing and I would be filming myself dancing.” he begins, “then I would start placing my phone in different places and trying to make short dance promos.”

On whether the pandemic restrictions brought along more opportunities for him to explore dance and video, Junior feels it might be the case but it was also a welcome and somewhat natural focus. “For sure COVID gave those opportunities and kind of gave me a chance to explore it but naturally I would have shifted into it eventually. I’ve done a few short films with friends where I’ve been in front of the camera but I’ve also been behind the camera as well asking things like, “how does this work?””

Junior says he doesn’t rule out working more with film and video in the future or even combining it with his stage practice seeing as both film and stage contain different creative advantages. “The stage can be unlimited for creativity but in terms of perception it can feel limited because you can only see things in a specific way,” he says, “whereas with a camera you have a wider range of how you can show the audience what you want them to see. And I think I would like to find those possibilities and bring them on stage but also take what you can imagine on stage and bring that onto film as well, see the interplay between the two.”

At Home With Irish Arts Center: "Observations," a Mufutau Yusuf Dance Film

I asked him if he could pick just one piece of film or media that he accessed as a younger person that inspired him to dance, what would that be. Junior is unhesitant and assured in his choice. “There was one. It’s from Eduard Lock from a company called La la la Human Steps. I think they are based in Canada and the piece is called Amelia,” he says, “You can find the full clip on Youtube and it is incredible. I was a teenager and when I was just starting contemporary dance I was watching this video nonstop.” 

I don’t have to ask what it is about Lock’s piece that captured his attention and imagination at a young age because Junior is readily full of praise for it. “The cinematography is just incredible. I still watch it today now and then. It’s a ballet and I am not a ballet dancer but the choreography, the cinematography, the music, the composition, it’s incredible.” he offers, “I don’t know who composed the piece but it is just absolutely phenomenal and I always go back to it.” 

It seems to flow back to the topic of resources and that another type of resource for a young dancer can come in the form of film or online video, “Wanting to be a dancer,” he says, “I had to go online and look for resources and that was one of those resources that made me feel, “Wow this is possible. Imagine making something like this.” I think that kind of added to the whole fantasy of being a dancer.”

‘Artists Are Migrants’: A Nigerian-Irish Dancer’s Multiplicities | New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/arts/dance/mufutau-yusuf-irish-arts-center.html

Q&A with Mufutau Yusuf – Òwe – Dublin Fringe Festival

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2022/09/22/qa-with-mufutau-yusuf-owe-dublin-fringe-festival/

Legacy Blog: Kate McElroy reflects on her 4 years as Public Engagement Artist at Uillinn

Worlds within words, Kate McElroy, Uillinn 

Gallery tours were always a highlight of my job. It never ceased to surprise me how insightful people are when responding to art. People’s natural ability to decipher work and create meaning from what they see was immensely inspiring for me.

The second summer of my time at Uillinn was my first studio residency there. I was undertaking a Masters in Art and Process in MTU Crawford, and our studios were temporarily shut so the residency at Uillinn was of huge significance. Public engagement being the main aspect of my job and an integral part in my art practice, I decided to do tours of an exhibition of my own work. I became very interested in the Visual thinking strategies method and used this as the foundation of my tours. I wanted to turn the usual tour dynamic on its head and have the visitor’s viewpoint as the centrepoint. Perception and how each individual interprets and creates meaning uniquely has always fascinated me. 

Kate McElroy collage, Uillinn

Visitors could book tours one on one or in small groups and they proved to be fertile ground for conversation and meaning making. People commented on how nice it was to be asked instead of told. These tours ended up being very formative for how I conducted tours in the time that followed. I tried to focus on the visitors' experience and draw out from them their own insights in an open and non-judgmental manner. There can be apprehension for people when talking about art, people are often afraid of getting it ‘wrong’. I find it important that the open-ended nature of art is emphasized, and it is within its ambiguity that much of its significance lies. 

Researching and creating dynamic workshops and creative responses to the exhibitions was also an aspect I reveled in. Nose diving deep into the work to try and scope the artist's motives, methods and thematics was always a pleasure. One such example was The Interactive Museum of languages exhibition by Tomasz Madajczak and the Mother Tongues Festival. The aim of the show was to encourage curiosity in languages for young people with Tomasz building beautifully crafted, interactive works. For my part, I researched words that exist in other languages but not in English.

Again, I was interested in the idea of perception, could alternative words and concepts open up new ways of seeing or thinking about the world? The word that sparked this interest was kobade: a word I came across in As we have always done by indigenous scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. It means a link in a chain – ‘a link between generations, between nations, between states of being, between individuals’. This concept Kobade invites awareness of our interconnectedness throughout time and space. One child’s comment to the project which included a gallery tour, workshop, classroom visit and exhibition of their work was.

‘I never knew that there were words missing in the English language. This project made me realize that.’ -Tara, Primary school participant

Kate McElroy and Sérgio Leitão, Uillinn

I curated children's exhibitions and the artists exhibitions in the stairwell and link galleries which developed into a strong interest for me. In my own art practice, I try to stretch traditional modes of presentation and display and I found this tendency also emerge in my approach to curation. Being creative with the concept and the framework is something that I really enjoyed, again trying to bend or open new modes of seeing is an intrinsic motive that underlied my approach.

Being an artist is something that was really nurtured in my time here and being given the freedom to allow my personality and interests sprout in my approach to working methodologies is something I am truly grateful for. The thing I will remember most from my time at Uillinn is the warm feeling I get every time I am in the building and that is because of the sincere, encouraging, and loving approach of the whole team at Uillinn. I can’t imagine a more supportive unit to have been a part of and it is a unique aspect of Uilllinn that many of the people who spend time here comment on. It is with the most heart full thanks and appreciation that I transition from this position, but its nurturance will stay as a constant scaffold in my life.

I am not the only one who finds it difficult to leave Uillinn and an online platform I set up during Covid lockdowns called Uillinn Coffee meetup for people related to Uillinn to keep connected will continue. The rhizomatic nature of Uillinn with hyphae all over the world continues to keep growing and quietly nourishing, an impalpable undergrid system permeating across space. Kobade in the making. 

Brian Fay, Gaelscoil Dr Uí Shuillabhain, exhibition tour 2023 

Kate McElroy, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre https://www.westcorkartscentre.com/kate-mcelroy1

Kate McElroy's Website https://www.katemcelroy.com/

Interview with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, The White Review  https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-leanne-betasamosake-simpson/

Ham Sandwiches and Discipline: A Chat with Nóra Ní Anluain Fay and Sorcha Murphy

In the lead up to a festival week sharing of their performance piece 'Ham Sandwiches and Discipline', I arranged to have a chat with Uillinn Dance Resident Nóra Ní Anluain Fay and her longtime collaborator Sorcha Murphy. By the time I got a chance to sit down with them in their studio space in the Arts Centre they had just managed to do a run through of their work-in-progress and seemed relaxed and jovial ahead of meeting their upcoming Uillinn audience. 

Ham Sandwiches and Discipline, Nóra Ní Anluain Fay, July 2023

Planned to evolve into an hourlong piece, 'Ham Sandwiches and Discipline' is the brainchild of Uillinn Dance Resident Nóra Ní Anluian Fay, who grew up watching and attending GAA matches and being immersed in the world of it. She became taken with the idea of combining a sports world she loved with that of her artistic landscape. I asked Nóra about the process of developing new dance work and different ways in which residencies and festivals can assist in doing so.

“Well I’ve started properly making in the last two years since I changed department in college and the whole prospect of making always seemed to happen quite quickly in terms of generating content but it’s always been about having creative spaces and dancers as well that are willing to go for it.” 

Nóra elaborates that she found her training in The Netherlands allowed her to get started in building up a body of short scale work but to now have residencies and spaces that allow her to really delve deeper is the next step, “Having a space to dissect work has been great. So has having spaces like Scene and Heard to try out stuff, which is the role of that festival. Basically anything that can help us understand the work more and help us develop it.”

I turn to Sorcha for her thoughts about her Uillinn experience and her mind seems to be on scaling up creatively too, “This experience has been quite different to other ones because it’s so open and the piece is going to be an hour long. We’ve never made an hourlong piece before and it’s been super nice to have this space and the opportunity to do that because our other pieces were in the context of college and assignments.”

Nóra and Sorcha met in Dublin Youth Dance Company and were guided by their teacher Mariam Ribon to Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Nora shares that after her first two years of college she started to get drawn towards choreography and made the switch in focus for her third and fourth years. “That’s where I found movement language and kind of settled in more and started to figure out the type of work I’m interested in and what I want to make as well.” They now have three main pieces which they want to expand, which will be a focal interest moving forward.

I take this point in the conversation to ask about the topics and themes of previous work to get a sense of what to expect from their Uillinn showcase. “I get inspiration from other areas completely,” says Nóra. “Like ’Usual Programming’ was about reality TV and dating shows. ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ was about the social politics in parties and the last piece we did, ‘You Gotta Trust that the Future is Going to Be a Bit Sexy,’ which we will be doing here at the Uillinn in November, is all about coming of age and growing up.” 

Both artists’ responses around questions of thematics veer towards accessibility and affording an ethos of dance being for everyone and Nora asserts that topicality can be key to achieving this through their performances. “They’re all kind of universal and equally personal topics and we’re hoping that they can be accessible for anyone and everyone in that way because dance can be kind of an abstract language that can be hard to enter sometimes or to feel welcome to.”

“I think that the pieces all have a sort of more serious message or undertone but because of the comedic elements,” says Sorcha. “You can just take what you want from it so you could just watch it and think, “Oh that’s a funny piece. It was really enjoyable,” or you could, if you wanted to delve deeper into it, take different meanings for yourself.”

For Nóra, imbuing the work with a sense of tonal duality, if not complexity, offers autonomy for audiences to decide how they want to read it and Sorcha appears to be in emphatic agreement. And what strikes me most immediately about speaking to both of these collaborators together is how cohesive and considerate they are of discursive space. 

Nóra and Sorcha’s patterns of communication around their work seem clear, unmuddled and secure. There are no conversational collisions for the entire duration of the chat and I’m later unsurprised to see a similar flow and freeness to their dance cohesion. I inquire if approaching comedy topics in particular is helped along by the fact that they have been long-time collaborators and if that provides a level of comfort and complicity.

“I think it has worked really well that we have known each other and danced together for so long,” says Sorcha, “Because we met when we were 16 and then we went to the Netherlands together, I have a really good understanding of Nora but also Nora’s work, which makes it easy to work together and I immediately know what she is looking for and what the tone is.”

“There’s a shorthand there,” agrees Nóra, “We definitely have that sense of a safety net with each other but we also find that we have the same sort of taste or preferences in terms of dance and art in general. We strive for the same quality and tones and characteristics within work. So if I can make Sorcha laugh with something then I know it’s the right direction so it’s a good springboard or signpost to know how an idea will work.”

Overall Nóra states that bridging main disciplines and tones and genres together is the main engine of the work they do so that the forefront of the work is dance and physical theatre merging together. “Then tonally a lot of more dramatic or serious notes come in as well along with the more comedic silliness and cheekiness,” she adds.

In one hilarious sequence of 'Ham Sandwiches and Discipline', Nóra and Sorcha perform a highly gesticulated choreography of post-match TV panellists providing a post game dissection in what I can only describe as (and this is not a technical term) hand dancing. Nora attributes this sequence to an afternoon spent watching The Sunday Game on TV and it being a somewhat formative moment of the piece itself.

“I think I first had this idea a couple of years ago about making a piece about GAA when I was watching The Sunday Game after one of the matches,” She explains, “I just saw the commentators hands and how expressive they were and that there was so much articulate movement in them. From there I was beginning to see a piece or at least elements of a piece coming together.” 

This piece has been a different bag for Nóra research wise as she has found herself really zeroing in on GAA culture at grassroots level. “Normally I use so many sources to create a piece but for this one it’s actually been quite loyal to the GAA and surrounding culture as a primary source.”

She has been reluctant to resort to any sort of obvious merges between sport and dance such as forcing themselves to physically bring the ball into it and both artists appear to have taken the most enjoyment and inspiration out of getting to know the players from O'Donovan Rossa junior ladies team. 

For Sorcha especially it has been a brand new learning experience. “It’s been interesting, especially for me because I am not in that world at all,” She says, “I don’t know anything about GAA so I have learned a lot these past two weeks but it was super nice to speak to the women on the junior ladies team and we got so much that we could put into the piece.” 

She elaborates, “A lot of the things they brought up was not about the sport itself. It was more about the connections that they make and how appreciative they are of everyone- the people who clean the fields, the people who drive them there and back.” I ask if any members of the team will be coming to see the sharing and both artists express that they hope so.

“We saw them play a match a few days later,” says Nóra, “After having spoken to them and knowing their mindset a bit and seeing them in action to kind of make the connection and transfer between those two points. It was a lovely, lovely insight into it.

When Nóra says, “They’re part of the piece now too,” it’s clear how much the GAA players’ input has meant in making the most out of their time at the Uillinn and converting the makings of a dynamic dance duet into a genuine team effort.

NAF Dance Website https://www.nafdance.com/

Nóra Fay Dance Ireland Residency https://www.danceireland.ie/whats-on/events/dance-ireland-residency-nora-fay/

Interview with Uillinn Dance Resident, Bea Bidault

Bea Bidault taken at Uillinn, 3rd June, 2023

In my first few weeks working at the Uillinn I got a chance to sit down with dance resident Bea Bidault to have a chat about her work-in-progress, Les Nuages. At the time of this conversation Bea was in the final stages of preparation for a sharing from Les Nuages where members of the public were invited to the dance studio to get an insider view of Bea’s work. 

“This sharing,” Bea explains, “is just an extract of a work in progress which started as an R&D in January in Lisbon with Connor Scott. We spent a week there and we developed some of the ideas and this is the continuation of that R&D so I’m spending this week on my own to research a little bit further. It’s not supposed to be a solo piece, it’s supposed to be a group piece or at least a duet. So it’s slowly coming into shape.”

A native of Barcelona via training in London, I asked Bea about her impressions of West Cork and how her experiences of Skibbereen have been.

“Well it’s a very beautiful part of the world. I had an amazing time even though it has been a short week and I have mostly been in the studio. I have been to the lakes and I have seen bioluminescence. That has brought me a lot of joy.”

She has also been taking the opportunity to find commonality with local people in Skibbereen, including her host, of whom she speaks warmly, ”I have been staying in town with Lisa Coughlan (one of the recommended West Cork hosts for artists in residence at Uillinn) which has been amazing and we have been just chatting and discussing the piece’s themes and other things.” 

Bea demonstrates an openness to draw inspiration from people from other walks of life, “I just think that having this opportunity to talk to people who grew up here and do things very related to dance because she uses somatic practices, and using movement to help others, it has been very interesting and very inspiring as well.”

I asked her about her own creative practice and how she approaches the themes in her work and she points to philosophers such as Byung-Chul Han, Silvia Federici and Franco Berardi, “I like this idea of using philosophy as a way to describe the present. I think it’s like looking through some lenses to see how the present is being shaped and how that is contrasting the past or even other ideas of how society could be.”

When prompted to discuss some of the main themes she wishes to tackle with her work, Bea appears to have cultures of consumption clearly in her line of sight, “I think this idea of neoliberalism and how we are exploiting ourselves. And our body, our personality, our identity becomes a tool to function in this society because I think consumption and capitalism are much embedded. We have this idea of becoming better or acquiring more knowledge and competing amongst ourselves to find this success.”

She elaborates further on the perils and pitfalls that neoliberal value systems pose to communities and individuals, “I think that is a trap because we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to become something and to be always achieving so that we are always in this place of unsettledness and dissatisfaction. And also that just brings more loneliness and alienation in the community because we are becoming more self-centred and therefore more narcissistic.”

Bea hopes that even if dance is viewed as a very abstract form to meet these challenges and pose these questions, that these ideas can be effectively and interestingly explored and contested through the artform.

I was curious about what form the process of devising a new dance piece might take; whether there is a clear destination in sight or whether the devising journey is relatively open-ended so I asked Bea about her own experiences and outlook on this process.

“I think there are some ideas I have that I would love to create so I am working towards those,” she acknowledges although she does remain open creatively, “The aim is to get these main things done but obviously the journey is going to determine whether I find some new images and how the whole piece is going to be shaped by them.” 

A particularly striking aspect of Bea’s Les Nuages sharing has been her use of a clear plastic suit and a smoke machine, which make it clear that costumes is something that Bea appears to consider of immense importance for this piece.

“I am still looking for a costume designer,” she shares, “and then to have an R&D with them. It’s possibly going to be the most influential part of the work because it’s going to be determining if some of the images are possible or not, or maybe the costumes are going to bring other possibilities that I had not thought of yet.” 

Bea Bidault's residencies at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre (https://www.westcorkartscentre.com/bea-bidault)

Bea Bidault's website (https://beatrizcalzado25.wixsite.com/my-site)

Sounds of Hope and Happiness

During the most stringent part of the lockdown, the world outside went quiet. I live in Skibbereen town and the normal noise of the hustle and bustle of everyday life became muted and reserved. The only sound I heard consistently each passing day was the singing of birds. Each morning, their voices rose with the sun. It was an encouraging sound that reminded me that the world hasn't stopped spinning just yet. In their music, there was hope. Far from Skibbereen and over to Italy, the citizens of the city of Florence were waking up to yet another day in lockdown. Italy has been hit hard by Covid-19 so you can imagine many days are grim and mournful. Yet on this one day last March, Florence arose to the sound of music outside. Rolling and reverberating through the empty streets came the beautiful lyrics of 'Nessun Dorma'. The sound was coming from Tenor Maurizio Marchini, who on that morning had decided to use his talent to sing from his home balcony and break through the silence with a song of hopeful beauty. Articles about this soon spread across the internet, fostering inspiration and generating smiles for thousands of people across the globe. Just some of those people were Arts for Health artists Tess Leak and Sharon Whooley. 

Tess and Sharon are no strangers to inspiring hope and happiness in others. They were already hard at work setting up their ‘Museum of Song’ postal project. Planned to take place over six weeks, Tess and Sharon sent packages full of poetry and song to participants in Dunmanway, Schull and Skibbereen Community Hospitals.  With each package, the artists presented a theme for consideration and an invitation for participants to respond. These themes included songs about Spring, mountains, rivers and many other inspiring themes. Tess and Sharon would then research relevant songs and poetry within these themes and then present them back to the participants. For example, on the third week of their project, the residents of Skibbereen Community Hospital expressed their fondness for the song 'The Rose of Mooncoin' which steered Tess and Sharon into making the theme of week three all about flowers. They set upon assembling a package for the participants that included a postcard called ‘The Language of Flowers’ which showed the different meanings behind them such as Daisy for ‘Attachment’, Yellow Rose for ‘Contentment’ and Nettle for ‘Defiance.’ They also included the words to the song ‘Red is the Rose’ for participants to learn if they wished. You can imagine the delight of the people receiving these packages and the creativity and conversation it would invoke in the hospital.

Further into the project is where Tess and Sharon used their inspiration from the Italian balcony opera singer. They decided to incorporate an aspect of outdoor live music. Tess and Sharon enlisted the talents of West Cork based opera singer Camilla Griehsel to deliver a series of performances for the residents and the staff too, outside the Community Hospitals in West Cork. Camilla is an incredible singer, who had teamed up with the Arts for Health team many times before to perform for residents all over West Cork. Beginning in her home village of Schull and continuing across West Cork to Bantry, Skibbereen, Dunmanway and Castletownbere, Camilla performed specially chosen songs gathered by Tess.

'We had a beautiful session with Camilla and Tess on Friday.' described the Director of Nursing at Schull Community Hospital, Roisín Walsh. 'The residents were thrilled with the occasion. They emerged into the sunlight uncertain and very quiet you could hear a pin drop. When the music started and Camilla sang that first beautiful haunting song I looked at their faces and they were so focused on her there was a sense of a new beginning almost. When she began singing all the voices began to join in and so it went. They did not want the afternoon to end. A very emotional experience for those of us who were fortunate to have been in attendance.'

The work of the Arts for Health team has brought the importance of music closer to home for me. It is comforting to see people come together to create something that gives hope and inspiration to others. The Arts for Health team has been doing this type of work long before the lockdown began and will hopefully continue to do so into a future made brighter by their contribution to it. 

To read more about the ‘Museum of Song’ project, please visit: https://artsforhealthwestcork.com/museum-of-song-postal-project/

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council

This project is supported by Cork County Council through the Creative Ireland Programme - further information from creative.ireland.ie and ireland.ie  

Presenting the Members and Friends Exhibition 2020

My name is Gavin Buckley. I’ve been working as part of the Front of House staff at Uillinn for just over a year now. I’ve seen an eclectic range of beautiful works in my time since. When I first arrived at the centre, the 2019 Members and Friends Exhibition was just being set up. I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction as I was presented with the opportunity to see over a hundred pieces from dozens of artists. Artists from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. It was a pleasure to walk into work, and have such an explosion of creativity as the backdrop to my day.

Fast forward to today and sadly the Centre is standing empty. As we all know, Covid-19 has spread worldwide and even small towns like Skibbereen have come to a near standstill, with the doors remaining closed at Uillinn. So, what were we to do about the 2020 Members and Friends Exhibition that many of us were eagerly awaiting? Thankfully, a solution was near ready-made through our online presence. We were able to contact all of our current Members and Friends to ask them for photographs of the pieces they had been working on for this year's show. Our staff emails soon beamed with a colourful collection of our member's fantastic creations. 

Dee Pieters, whose wonderful seascape oil paintings are featured in the exhibition, took positives when it came to creativity during the lockdown: "Although being in lockdown could potentially stifle one's creativity, I made sure to maintain good discipline and focus when it came to my work. I was lucky to have it".

Dee Pieters, Cliff Edge

Our next task was presenting the collection to you, the viewer. Social media was an option but not an ideal one as we didn’t want all of this wonderful work scattered in amongst messy social media feeds. We needed a dedicated website. Not the simplest of tasks. Yet up steps Louise Forsyth, Uillinn’s very own Atlas when it comes to bearing burdens. With the aid of Dermot Browne to help get it off the ground- an artist and arts worker based in Cork, who volunteered his time to help - Louise put some serious work into making the dedicated website reflect both the feel and quality of the exhibition and a platform for artists to sell work. And so here we are with an online 2020 Members and Friends Exhibition for your viewing pleasure.

https://www.uillinngalleries.com/

So, the exhibition is up and yes, even though viewing it online might not have the same impact as experiencing the art in the galleries with your present senses, there are some benefits to it being online. For one, the exhibition is available to people who normally wouldn’t be able to experience it. For example, people that live far away or are otherwise unable to travel to the Centre. The collection can also be organised into different categories or viewed all on one page, depending on your preference. You can now purchase a piece from the comfort and privacy of your own home, dipping in and out at your leisure.

Even though all of our circumstances are wildly different compared to this time last year, we at West Cork Arts Centre are delighted to be able to break through the current gloom with some small sense of normalcy. In my opinion, art helps us hone in on answers to the puzzling emotional questions we have about our own lives. In that way, and considering current circumstances, art has become as necessary as ever. In our isolation, we have turned to TV, books, games, music, and whatever else it is that helps us get through the day. The art that is presented through Uillinn is a part of that too. Because of that, I feel privileged to be a part of West Cork Arts Centre because I admire its ability to contribute to brightening people’s days during these grim times.

Ann Davoren, Director of the West Cork Arts Centre, had this to say about the comfort that art can bring us: "As we look ahead to more hopeful days, we also find grounding in the belief that art can speak to us in moments like these, offer solace or joy, and bring us together, even if physically apart". 

Soon enough our front doors will open as well as many others. I'm looking forward to being back in the centre with a reinvigorated appreciation for people. The people I work with, the artists that present at the centre, and the visitors taking time out of their day to see what's on display. It’s the combination of those people that were the highlight of my time before Covid-19, and I know will continue to be so once this is all over.

To view the 2020 Members and Friends Exhibition, please visit: https://www.uillinngalleries.com/

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council