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Children brush up on Irish history
Tom fitzpatrick looks at a new project at the Irish World Heritage Centre
in Manchester that is helping disadvantaged young people reach their full
potential.
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds have created pieces of magnificent
artwork in Manchester thanks to an initiative from the Irish World Heritage
Centre.
The Irish Centre has been working with pupils permanently excluded from
schools to create art embracing Irish culture.
The youngsters are from Manchester’s pupil referral unit and have
to attend specialised education classes.
They have recently created several works of art, through graffiti, with
the help of city-based artists Tony Brady and Daniel Wheatley.
The project, funded by the Local Network Fund, was designed to encourage
disadvantaged young people to reach their full potential.
The results speak for themselves and staff at the Irish Centre were keen
to point out not only the impeccable behaviour of those involved but also
the pleasure it has given some of the older visitors to the centre, who
were initially unconvinced by the idea of graffiti as art.
Cultural and educational development worker Margot Ryan said: “We
like to try and work with harder-to-reach groups in partnership with the
Irish Diaspora Foundation.
“We do a lot of work with Traveller children and pupil referral
units because these children don’t get access to mainstream activities
as they don’t have the same resources available to them.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge but we thought it would
be a good idea to get Tony in to show them the process of legal graffiti
art.”
The pupils were presented with the story of the Flight of the Earls at
the beginning of the first week.
They were encouraged to draw on that as inspiration and to celebrate the
400th anniversary of this famous period of Irish history.
They were then encouraged by community artist Daniel Wheatley to produce
something “exciting, imaginative and yet authentic.”
Having spent the first week learning and devising the difficult techniques
involved, they met renowned Manchester-based graffiti artist and second-generation
Irishman Tony Brady.
In the second week Brady helped them to learn the design processes.
The end product is a magnificent mural which now hangs proudly in the
Irish Centre’s main hall as an enticing backdrop to the main stage.
The mural provides a fantastic alternative to the thatch cottage on the
other side of the hall and captures the old and new Ireland — history
and modern culture.
Josh, 14, said: “I really enjoyed putting the effort in and seeing
a great result”, while 15-year-old Sara added: “I have learned
a lot of techniques this week such as clay modelling and how to age paper.”
Ms Ryan said: “These children are bright, some are aiming for GCSEs
and A-levels and they just need a different environment.
“The kids took to it really well.
“They concentrated and were really productive, getting loads of
work done so we had to keep on introducing new things.
“But they reacted really well to everything, including learning
about Irish history.”
"We like to try and work with harder-to-reach groups in partnership
with the Irish Diaspora Foundation because these children don’t
get access to mainstream activities as they don’t have the same
resources available to them."
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