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Art as Exchange (AAEX) is an open group of local artists who have been meeting regularly for almost 2 years now in order to exchange ideas, socialise, collaborate and develop public art projects. Public participatory art projects include representations at Drogheda Arts Festival 2017 & 2018, Creative Spark National Drawing Day 2017 & 2018, and First Fortnight (Inside Out). Group internally we focused on Hands-on Gatherings and created a Large Scale Mural.

This year the group decided to seek an opportunity to showcase individual members’ art practices in our first group exhibition, which will also host a number of workshops for various ages for the public to get involved.

In the spirit of trying to get out of the gallery and into the community we are delighted to avail of the community space at the Long Walk Shopping Centre for this.

Participating Artists

Anna Marie Savage – Bernhard Gaul – Caoimhe Mc Carthy – Ciara Agnew – Heather Cassidy – James Mc Loughlin – Jean Marshall – Michael Stafford – Niamh Gillespie – Ominous Omin – Rachel Burke – Susan Farrelly – Úna Curley

Opening Reception

Thursday, 17th May 7 PM – All welcome!

Location and Opening Times

Long Walk Shopping Centre, Dundalk

Monday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday 11 am – 6 pm
Sunday closed

Workshops [Booking Required]

All workshops are free but places are limited
To book email aaex.artspark@gmail.com

Comic Book Drawing

With James Mc Loughlin
Age 12 and over – Sat 19 May and Sat 26 May 12 am – 2:30 pm

An introduction to comic book art, creating a short comic book story with practical tips and advice.

Create Artist Books

With Michael Stafford
Age 12 and over – Sat 19 May and Sat 26 May 2:30 pm – 5 pm

The ancient art of book making, binding and their use.

Meditate and Make

With Úna Curley (a.k.a The Emotional Artist)
Adults – Thu 24 May and Mon 28 May 10 am – 11 am

Start your week right with Meditate and Make. Bring out your inner creativity.

Tangle Time

With Jean Marshall
Adults – Mon 21 May 2 pm – 4 pm

Fun, easy and relaxing, an inexpensive meditative art form designed for all skill levels – if you can scribble you can tangle and all that you need to get started is some white paper, a fine tipped black pen and a pencil.

Paint with a Painter

With Ciara Agnew, Susan Farrelly and Bernhard Gaul
Age 10-15 – Wed 23 May 5 pm – 7 pm

Have fun and get creative working with professional painters, sharing hints and tips. Work clothes (and shoes) essential!

The exhibition is supported by Creative Spark and Abbey Art Studios

Art As Exchange is kindly supported and facilitated by Creative Spark

At the beginning of September 2016 more than a dozen local art practitioners and/or interested followed an open call to meet at Creative Spark to discuss possibilities of creating some sort of local platform encouraging Art as Exchange, both between local practitioners and with the wider public. Some more, who couldn’t come, declared their interest, some others joined later. Some also left, after moving elsewhere.

A key motive behind this, was the desire to establish a culture emphasizing art as communication or communication through art, which was found lacking locally. It should be an alternative or addition to art as “the production of things, to be shown and/or sold”, often in isolation. It should suggest and facilitate the production and exchange of art as something in which many can have a stake, skilled or unskilled, understanding themselves as artists or not.

Anything from just providing a regular opportunity for practitioners or interested to simply meet up and socialise, exchange experiences and ideas, to try and work together and if possible find ways of engaging the public, would have been seen as a success.

As it turned out, we quite quickly established a format of bi-weekly “gatherings”, many of which have been hands-on sessions (communal drawing, screen printing, lino-printing, sketches for installation proposals etc.), but we also worked out a Manifesto, documented what we did and now set up a web site in the wake of approaching first public engagement in the form of a postcard art project.

We try to maintain an open format, allowing members to fluctuate and join in as they see fit, while at the same time maintaining an ongoing process, communicating via mailing lists and WhatsApp.

Art Exhibition – Long Walk – May 2018

The Story So Far…