LOOKING BACK Katie Moore examines documents in the Jackie Clarke Collection.
Emerging artist Katie Moore has been awarded the special 1916 artist residency with the Jackie Clarke Collection in Ballina.
The aim of the residency is to give the artist time to research and develop ideas in the creation of new art work, in response to the events of the 1916 Easter Rising, by working with the Jackie Clarke Collection. It also provides an opportunity to highlight the unique, nationally significant resource that the Jackie Clarke Collection represents, especially in the centenary year of the Rising.
A recent graduate of GMIT (Galway Campus) with first class honours, Moore has been a finalist for the RDS Student Arts Awards. The Foxford artist’s work is exquisitely detailed: She uses textiles, stitching and installation in addition to drawing and video to create unforgettable visual experiences of the world.
Moore was selected via an open competition, which attracted large numbers of established, high-calibre artists. The selection panel was greatly impressed by her approach to the residency and her genuine connection with the theme and Jackie Clarke. Moore was greatly inspired by the artists’ site visit that took place in June this year, during which Sinead McCoole, of the Jackie Clarke Collection, provided a fascinating insight into the collection which has been described as ‘an overflowing treasure chest’.
Jackie Clarke (1927–2000) was a Ballina business man and a collector of Irish historical material. In 2005, his widow, Anne Clarke (1940–2015), in accordance with her late husband’s wishes, gifted his collection to Mayo County Council on condition that it remain permanently in Ballina. It is now available publicly, for the people of Ballina, Mayo and Ireland, at the former provincial bank building, Pearse Street, Ballina, opened in 2013.
In the coming years as we mark the centenary of the founding of the state, 2016–2023, this repository of Irish material will become a site of central importance, as documents in this collection will shed new light on these past events.
Moore will spend time working in Ballina to develop an artwork, which will be launched next year. “I’m making a piece of art that is an acknowledgement to the great collector Jackie Clarke and an act of memory for the 1916 Rising,” she explains.
During the residency, which will start in October, Moore will involve many people and groups from the local community. As well as creating her own artwork which will be installed in collaboration with Ballina Arts Centre at the Civic Exhibition space in 2016, she will also facilitate the design and installation of a special artwork comprised of contributions by local people, which will be exhibited publicly at the Jackie Clarke Collection building.
For more information on Katie Moore, visit www.katiemoorevisualartist.com. To follow her progress during the residency, visit her blog at www.paperbloom.net. For more on the Jackie Clarke Collection, visit www.clarkecollection.ie.