Na Cailleacha is partying this week to celebrate our second birthday. So much has happened since we first introduced ourselves to one another in Ballinglen in September 2020, that we are having trouble believing the calendar. And where has the time taken us? I think I can safely speak for all of the group in saying that it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. Sure, we’ve had some minor irritations and fall outs, mainly due to Covid, and the poor communication, unreliable memories and health issues that go with ageing but what we discovered was that we really loved being together from time to time, to discuss, make and show work. We didn’t make it easy for ourselves with members spread out all over the country, from Allihies in West Cork to Belfast, with two in County Tipperary, two in Wexford/Carlow, one in Kilkenny and one in Dublin, so we had to depend on zoom/and social media for much of our contact and that, as regular Zoom users know, is fraught with challenges for digitally and aurally challenged older people. In spite of those issues we look forward to our regular Zoom meetings which are a breeding ground for new ideas. Of course the minute we hit on an idea that appeals to us all, we clamour for a communal space where we can discuss it all more freely, sketch out ideas and generally get down to practicals. Since our last blog, Carole and her Trio launched a new album, Night Vision, and some of the rest of us got to enjoy her return to public jazz sessions after all the frustrations of lockdown, Barbara’s short film Na Cailleacha - Seven Voices won The Best Women Empowerment Film of The New Wave Short Film Festival in Munich and will now be shown as part of their forthcoming film festival. Therry and Patricia have just won the Turkish Film Festival Award of the Best Creative Short Film for ‘The moon is set in motion ...... Patricia is busy preparing for her show in IMMA in the New Year, Helen for a show in the Taylor Galleries in October, and Therry is about to launch another season of Homeland, the film festival that she curates every year along with film curators in Barcelona. This year’s festival, Through Light and Shade will open at Black Mills, Church Street, Roscrea on Friday 23 rd of September, under the auspices of Damer House. The wonderful Sinead Keogh invited us to participate in Matriarch during the Kilkenny Arts
Festival and it was tantalising to be missing two members of the group there due to illness and to have to repeat that again for the launch of Bones in the Attic at Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane. To be included, by curator Victoria Evans in Bones in the Attic was a special moment for us since it allowed us to see our work alongside the generation of great women who came directly after us from the Gallery’s collection (Dorothy Cross, Kathy Prendergast, Alice Maher) and more especially to be there with a younger generation again, one imbued with all the passion and commitment that we had and some new issues too, and to realise that the overall need for visibility is as crucial for them as it was for us. We have always said that we would lobby for studio provision for artists’ in care settings. We now see clearly the value of having more collective spaces where groups can be accommodated and supported to work without having to pay exorbitantly for the privilege or to have to make marathon journeys across the country to work together. Making work is important but without a community to share it with it’s hard to keep up the impetus. Community is what gives us energy to keep doing what we do in spite of isolation, ageing and loss, and to really get a buzz from it.
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