Meath County Council Cultural Services Creative Award 2019

Meath County Council Cultural Services are pleased to announce that the recipients of the Creative Award 2019 are Alan Phelan and Dunboyne Flower and Garden Club. This award is supported by the Meath County Council Creative Ireland Programme.

Dunboyne Flower and Garden Club and Alan Phelan will work together on a photography project that explores a unique collaboration between art and flowers.  Working over nine months, an ambitious exchange of expertise between disciplines and communities will create artworks that investigate forgotten histories in flower arranging and photography.  Dunboyne Flower and Garden Club will work with Alan Phelan to revive and explore lost techniques, from paintings of floral arrangements starting in the 1600’s, and the “Joly Screen” colour photography method from the 1890s.  Over a series of shared workshops, floral arrangements will be created founded on historical paintings of flowers starting with 17th century Dutch paintings and working through to 20th century floral designers like Constance Spry. The arrangements are photographed using theJoly Screen colour method, a process invented in the late 19th century by Irish physicist John Joly.   A large collection of colour slides by John Joly, mainly of botanical subjects, are currently held by the National Library of Ireland.

Through collaboration, Dunboyne Flower and Garden Club and Alan Phelan will present their collaborative work in a series of events and exhibitions that will take place in Meath, Ireland as well as internationally in 2019 and 2020. 

Remarking on the collaboration, Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council, Cllr Wayne Harding said, “I am interested by the creative possibilities of such a unique pairing between an artist like Alan Phelan and Dunboyne Flower and Garden Club.  I look forward to seeing how the collaboration develops throughout the year. Meath County Council Cultural Services Creative Award is a significant investment in the arts in the county and I would encourage as many groups and artists as possible to get together and apply for next year’s funding when we announce a call for applications later this year”.

Alan Phelan

Alan Phelan studied at DCU and RIT, New York. Recent projects include "Our Kind", a work about Roger Casement, commissioned by Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane for 2016/1916. It was later screened at special events in Oslo, Bergen, Derry, Belfast and Carlow where it won the Hotron Éigse Art Prize. He has shown in numerous institutions including IMMA Dublin, LCGA Limerick, Kunstmuseum Bonn, BOZAR Brussels, OK11 Helsinki, Eastlink Gallery Shanghai, Chapter Cardiff, SKUC Ljubljana, SKC Gallery Belgrade and The Whitney Museum of American Art New York as well as many galleries and art centres in Ireland. Phelan currently works from Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. For more information, see http://www.alanphelan.com

Dunboyne Flower and Garden Club 

was founded in 1976 and is a member of AOIFA, The Association of Irish Floral Artists whose objectives are to bring together club members for artistic development and for cultural and educational purposes. DFGC is a voluntary organization of 50 members from Ashbourne, Batterstown,  Clonee and Dunshaughlin.  Members participate in national competitions and events. Members also participate in national AOIFA competitions and NAFAS international events, which has included participation in expos in Boston, Osaka, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

Meath County Council Cultural Services Creative Award 2019 of €20,000 to create new collaborative work between any professional artist(s) or professional production companies, with local formal and informal groups, societies and committees.  This Creative Award is made possible through funding from Creative Ireland and Meath County Council.  A new call for proposals for 2020 will be made later this year.

Posted on 2 Jan 2019.