Crafting a showcase of best in Cork
Where Cork leads, others follow! Cork Craft & Design has launched its 2021 programme for Cork Craft Month this August.
And Cork Craft Month will be running during the Design & Crafts Council Ireland’s (DCCI) inaugural National Craft Month.
Carol Walsh, Operations Manager at Cork Craft & Design said: “We are delighted to see our local success replicated at a national level with the first ever National Craft Month. We are immensely proud that the craft community in Cork were able to provide a model for this nationwide programme of events and look forward to seeing the whole of the country embrace their local crafts just like the people of Cork do every August.”
Showcasing the best of contemporary Irish craft, a stellar line-up of over 70 workshops, masterclasses, artist talks, trails and demonstrations is taking place throughout the month.
Featuring both physical and online events, along with free family-friendly activities, the packed calendar will present opportunities for people to explore the best of local artisan crafts. The full programme is available at corkcraftanddesign.com.
Cork Craft & Design is Ireland’s largest social enterprise for craftspeople and Cork Craft Month has been a major success, even overcoming lockdowns.
Cork Craft Month’s 2021 showcase exhibition will share craftwork inspired by the lockdown, with ‘Baile/Home’ opening in Working Artist Studios in Ballydehob on 31 July. An online shop will open this Friday where people can see and purchase local craftwork direct from corkcraftanddesign.com.
Throughout August, Cork Craft & Design’s shop at St Patrick’s Mills in Douglas will host two Made in Cork craft and food markets (8 August and 29 August) while Douglas Village Shopping Centre will be the setting for the collaborative exhibition of furniture makers, ceramicists and potters, ‘From The Earth’.
The Gallery @ No.46 on Grand Parade will host ‘Emerge’, a showcase for up-and-coming Cork crafters. This exhibition will include graduating students from CIT Crawford College, Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, St John’s Central College, Kinsale College and Skibbereen College of Commerce.
Carol Walsh said: “The pandemic has been a challenging time for crafters, but the lockdowns of the last year have also created opportunities that we never could have imagined before. Being at home allowed space to focus, to be creative, and to try new things. Finding the positives of the past 16 months, our 110-strong membership have built online communities through social media, took the time to hone their skills, and responded to a changing world through their art.”
To coincide with Heritage Week, three workshops will be held in the Chapel Hill School of Art, Macroom on 21 August to spotlight traditional heritage crafts and their importance to Irish culture. Rosemary Kavanagh of Wild Rose Basketry will deliver a basket weaving workshop, Helle Helsner will demonstrate Bronze Age casting and mould making, and stone sculptor James Horan will deliver a Sketching in Stone workshop.
Kilcoe Studios in West Cork will also run a series of heritage events to celebrate traditional straw craft, An Tionscadl Túí (The Straw Project), a family-friendly, multigenerational straw craft workshop.
Greywood Arts, based in a historic Georgian house in the centre of Killeagh will host a series of weekly workshops on Fridays during Cork Craft Month.
The programme for Cork Craft Month is available at corkcraftanddesign.com. See #corkcraftmonth21.