Embracing art in Scariff

LOCAL disability groups and members of the community worked together to learn and experience art under the guidance of artist Carmel O’Doherty as part of the Embrace exhibition in Scariff recently.

Carmel explained that Embrace is a collaboration between the arts council and local disability groups, where an artist is placed in an environment such as the Brothers of Charity and they work with members of the group and the local community producing works of art, in this instance paintings.
Carmel has been behind a number of public art projects in Clare. The Embrace exhibition saw her working with clients of the Brothers of Charity. “The aim of the project is to integrate members of the wider community with people with disabilities. On the project in Scariff, there were six participants from the Brothers of Charity and six from the wider community. I ran a painting project with them. The aim of the sessions was to focus on ability, rather than disability. It was learning through fun and involvement and the learning process was two-fold with participants learning from each other as well as learning art from me. Individual participants worked on their own paintings but enjoyed viewing the progress of others’ paintings also,” Carmel explained.
The project was carried out with a three-hour session every week for six weeks.
She said that the 12 people who were involved in the project with her in Scariff were “a very enjoyable group to work with”.
“They have no preconceived ideas and they expressed themselves 100%. There was a great feeling of achievement on my behalf. For many of the participants it was their first time involved in an arts project and they were so open to learning,” she added.