Coláiste Muire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon), Co. Clare – Mary Fahy

The following blog posts have been written by art teachers Aidan Power and Mary Fahy along with their 5th Year class students in Coláiste Muire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon), Co. Clare. They share their experiences of collaborating with artists Mitch Conlon and James Moran on the project Keystone, commissioned by Clare County Council to celebrate and mark 20 years of artist in schools programming by Clare Arts Office. The curatorial framework Art School, directed and curated by Jennie Guy, were invited to deliver the project, along with co-curator Fiona Gannon. This project is one of the recipients of the 2023 Portal Documentation Award, read the announcement here.

The new Leaving Certificate Art specification focuses on art as social commentary, political and social art and artists in the community, for this reason, the 5th Year students from the respective schools were selected to participate in the project.

Mary Fahy is an award winning teaching artist working in Clare since 2003. Her work explores presence and absence, memory, grief, love and loss. Mary graduated LSAD with a BA Fine Art Painting, (1st) 2000 and H Dip Art Education (1st) 2003, when she won both the Irish Times Award and the Larkin Memorial Award for art teaching.