Set for Summer Showcase

Established in 2019, Bailieborough Creative Hub has been bringing the community together through art and creativity and members are looking forward to their Summer Showcase exhibition later this month.

It will open on July 22 in Bailieborough courthouse and display works by a range of local and national artists.

The hub’s founders, self proclaimed “mad people who run around and organise things”, are Sally-Ann Duffy and Caroline Clarke. They provide a platform for artists to showcase their work.

“We’ve got some incredible artwork for our second year running,” gushed Sally-Ann in reference to the 28 pieces set to be exhibited.

“Cavan is such a creative place... We’re very lucky here to have a really good group of members that get involved,” she beamed.

London native Sally-Ann said she and her colleague “felt that there wasn’t an arts group that fitted a mixture of creative people”.

When speaking to the Celt last week, the pair had just finished an arts & crafts class with the youth of Cootehill, one day after completing an art class with Bailieborough’s children.

Art is for everybody

Not accepting comments like “I can’t draw!”, Sally-Ann advocates that art is for everybody.

“We always believe that everybody is an artist, everybody has creativity in them,” she said, explaining its importance for wellbeing and creating a “sense of achievement”.

This belief led the group to use their passion to integrate people across the whole community.

They organise art classes with everybody in mind, from young children to people in day care centres, Ukrainian and Syrian people living in the county and children with additional needs - anyone who wants to participate.

“For all of those different people, there has to be a different approach,” she said, particularly when working, for example, with people who have limited English to “give them a space to come and create and help support English language”.

Sally-Ann explained the necessity to “sit around a table as a group of people, as friends in a community setting”.

“We learn from them and of course they learn from us too,” she said of the different communities and cultures they work with.

“We’re always looking for ways we can bring art to different people,” she said.

“They really create some interesting artwork, even for the person who said they are not artistic at all,” she found.

Apart from working within the community, the Bailieboro Creative Hub has a group of 17 members who meet monthly. This group consists of painters, photographers, writers, ceramicists, sculptors, and mixed media artists.

“We’re a supportive group, we encourage each other,” she said, explaining how members help each other in whatever projects they want to pursue.

“Between us we have the information to find out about that [project], we have the connections, and we can talk to people.”

She explained that the group is open to everybody.

“We don’t have any restrictions on people joining, there’s no criteria.

“We’re just really passionate about promoting the arts.”

Passionate

Asked about the most rewarding element of volunteering for the group, Sally-Ann responded, “the joy that creating art gives to people.”

“I’m just so passionate about creativity in all ways, it’s something that I do to relax.

“In this day and age when everybody is using screens and computers, we don’t want to lose touch with being able to make marks on a piece of paper,” she concluded.