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- The Kilmore Quay Community Garden will host this Community Art Boat Building Project, funded by Creative Ireland. The Garden is a coastal one; Kilmore Quay is located next to Ballyteigue Burrow a special area of conservation. A large swathe of the local land was reclaimed in the mid 1800’s and the lagoons and mudflats that lie behind the dunes provide homes for many migrating birds. It is an area rich in biodiversity and with a complex historical relationship to water management.
- The boat frame will be built in the polytunnel of the garden located to the rear of the Stella Maris Community Centre. Inside the centre groups of children and adults will learn about upcycling textiles to create the canopy and accoutrements of the long boat and to decorate it with paint. The boat when finished will be launched in the waterways adjacent to Kilmore Quay.
- Artist Andi McGarry & Irish speaker and film maker Conall Geoghegan will run five evening workshops in the Community Garden & the Stella Maris. They will work with participants to build a 22 foot long boat. Using willow grown in the garden and other locally sourced willow, plus reclaimed wood.
- After the boat frames have been built, Lynn Haughton of the Upcycle Movement and Artist Jeni Roddy will lead a group in creating the shell for the boat, like currachs, this fabric shell will be stretched over the frame of the boat. The team will learn about upcycling textiles, choosing your materials, how to treat them to make them waterproof and how to stitch them together and stretch them. They will also make casings for the oarlocks and oar handles from upcycled old wetsuits. They will do this over three two hour evening workshops.
- Lynn and Jeni will invite children to plan, design and to paint the paddles and the interior woodwork of the boat during a weekend workshop.
- Conall Geoghegan supported by Andi will lead the children in a second workshop, showing them how to weave using natural local materials to create mini boats. Conall’s first language is Irish, the workshop will be bi-lingual.
- The Workshops and final boat launch event will take place in January 2024.
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