On Friday 27th March the first year art students along with some third year art students went on a fantastic art trip. We visited the vibrant Ark to see a play called ‘Peat’. The Ark is a unique, purpose-built cultural centre in the heart of Dublin's Temple Bar, where children aged 2 -12 can explore theatre, music, literature, art, film. The bog themed play ‘Peat’ is linked with the Creative schools project we are currently undertaking with this group of art students.
With lightness and humour, this new play for children asks big questions about life, death, time and history. A conversation between two 11-year olds who find themselves standing on top of everything that has ever happened, it is a story of friendship, loss, and finding our place in the world. A show for everyone who has ever wondered where things go when they leave us.
After the play we walked through the sun drenched city to the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street. The exhibition, Kingship and Sacrifice, is the result of the findings of the National Museum of Ireland’s Bog Bodies Research Project, which was established in 2003 following the discovery of two Iron Age bog bodies at Oldcroghan, Co. Offaly and Clonycavan, Co. Meath. The students were particularly interested in the Old Croghan Man is the name given to a well-preserved Iron Age bog body found in an Irish bog in June 2003. The remains are named after Croghan Hill, north of Daingean, County Offaly, near where the body was found.
The bog will act as a primary source of inspiration for our wonderful visual installation to be designed and made for an atrium space in our school. This piece promises to act as a strong visual statement and encourage other subject areas within the STEAM group of subjects to follow suit. It was a really interesting tour and the students are inspired to begin the art installation for St Mary’s.