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A colourful and bright image by Anne Crowe. The inside of a cell with walls in green and cell bars in yellow, against a blue and red background. White panels contrast with a blue and navy lino patterned floor.

Exhibition: The Centre of Everything

26 Aug - 27 Sep 2024 (Past)


The Centre of Everything celebrates the creative work of over fifty artists who participate in Arts Ability and marks the twentieth anniversary since the establishment of the programme.

Wexford County Council Arts Department in partnership with Wexford Arts Centre are pleased to present The Centre of Everything, a group exhibition featuring work by artists participating in Arts Ability, an arts and health initiative of Wexford County Council, the HSE, and Wexford Mental Health Association. The exhibition will run in at Wexford County Council, Carricklawn, Wexford, from Monday 26 August to Friday 27 September.

Arts Ability engages people who experience long-term mental health and/or intellectual disabilities in a range of creative experiences and support their development as artists. The programme is led by the Arts Department of Wexford County Council in partnership with the HSE and Wexford Mental Health Association. It operates in centres across the county including KTAC (Killagoley Training & Activation Centre) in Enniscorthy, CUMAS in New Ross, and WRIDS (Wexford Residential and Intellectual Disability Service) in Enniscorthy as well as a variety of day and residential centres county wide. It is facilitated by visual artists, Oonagh Latchford, Declan Kennedy and Jeni Roddy, storyteller and writer, Joe Brennan and musician Emily Redmond with the support of the HSE staff in each centre.

The exhibition was curated by Mary Grehan who says ‘What was especially exciting for me when I encountered the artwork produced through the Arts Ability programme for the first time was the consistency of choices made by the artists. It took little exposure to the work to recognize the individual signature of the various artists. What was doubly fascinating was the choreography involved in the making process, the consistent sequence of moves some artists apply to making work or the way others produced certain images again and again leading to a sort of repeat pattern when their work is seen as a whole, and this is something we played with in presenting it. The final exhibition is brimming with colour, texture, wit, pattern, story, and the sheer joy in the act of creating.’

The paintings, drawings, sculpture, writings and music on display in The Centre of Everything are not only an expression of the artists who created them, but also testament to a successful long-term partnership between the Arts Department of Wexford County Council, the HSE, and Wexford Mental Health Association. It is also a testimony to the commitment of the staff and facilitating artists who work at providing and protecting a creative space in the various centres for the Arts Ability artists on a year-round basis.

Mary Grehan is a writer, curator and arts manager who specialises in working in healthcare settings. She is responsible for commissioning artworks by Remco de Fouw, Vera Klute and others for the new children’s hospital in Dublin. She is former Director of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust and her debut novel was published by Penguin Ireland.

For further information on the exhibition or Arts Ability please contact Úna Cahill, Assistant Arts Officer, Arts Department, Wexford County Council on 053 9196409 or una.cahill@wexfordcoco.ie.

Banner Image: Anne Crowe, Mountjoy Prison – Dublin, acrylic on paper, 84 x 60cm


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