Bea Orpen - Postcards from the Past

Old Drogheda Society

Saturday 1st October 4pm-7.30pm

Barlow House, West Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth

Seminar, launch and sale of limited edition prints by artist Bea Orpen of the old Drogheda Grammar School.

Droichead Arts Centre looks forward to celebrating the life and work of Bea Orpen (1913 – 1980) and her contribution to the artistic and cultural life of Drogheda.

Join us at 4pm in Barlow House, for a seminar exploring the social, political and artistic context in which the Drogheda Grammar School prints were made and the cultural legacy of this important artist. This will be followed by the launch of limited edition Bea Orpen prints, showing four views within the old Drogheda Grammar School.

4pm – Postcards from the Past Seminar

Guest Speakers:

- Fiona Loughnane (Associate Lecturer in Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design) – Bea Orpen, Women Artists and Irish Modernism.

- Mamo McDonald (former President of the ICA and friend of Bea Orpen) – Bea Orpen and the ICA

- Brian Trench (Researcher, Editor and Trainer in Science Communication) – Bea Orpen, Drogheda, 1945

6pm - Launch and sale of limited edition series of prints from of the old Drogheda Grammar School by Anthony Collins, the Print Studio, Droichead Arts Centre. Refreshments will be served.

Free of Charge But Booking Recommended Due To Limited Seating

Tel: 041 98 75140 | Website www.droichead.com | Email: info@droichead.com See more

Drogheda Museum Millmount,

History, Archaeology & Heritage,

Governor's House,

Millmount,

Drogheda,

Co. Louth, Ireland,

0419833097

The Wexford Carols

There's a most unusual Christmas event coming up in the Droichead Arts Centre this December!

Join singer Caitriona O'Leary and her innovative traditional Irish band 'DÚLRA", together with very special guests Lillis Ó Laoire, Noirín NÍ Riain and Austrian Hurdy Gurdy virtuoso Matthias Loibner, for a remarkable musical event in the Droichead Arts Festival on Friday 6th December at 7.30pm.

This will be the first complete performance in over 200 years of Ireland's most beautiful and important collection of Christmas music, "The Wexford Carols".

Written between 1684 and 1728 by Luke Waddinge, Bishop of Ferns, and Fr. William Devereux, "The Wexford Carols" are Ireland's greatest body of Christmas music.

While a few of the songs remain popular today, such as 'The Darkest Midnight' and 'The Wexford Carol' itself, the majority of these 22 inspired and moving folk carols have not been performed for centuries. Written in English and set to Irish and English tunes of the day, much of the music for the carols has been forgotten or lost until now.

Tickets €16/€12 concession; Call Droichead Arts Centre box office on 041 9833946 or book online at www.droichead.com.

The Boyne Valley in autochrome

Whilst scanning through the local paper this morning an upcoming exhibition in the Droichead Arts Centre caught my eye; an exhibition of photographs from Ireland, including the Boyne Valley, taken by two French female photographers Marguerite Mespoulet and Madeleine Mignon in 1913. They were part of a wider project financed by French millionaire banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn to photograph and film various different cultures around the world. What made these records stand out as opposed to other collections was the fact that they are in colour; Kahns' photographers used the new technique of autochrome, invented in 1903 by the Lumiere Brothers and the worlds first true colour photographic process.

So we end up with wonderful pictures such as this Galway girl in all her traditional Claddagh finery:
                                 
                     


Photographs such as this are not only an invaluable document of Irish culture in their own right, but also remind us that our forebears did not exist in a black and white world, one that we are accustomed to seeing in other photographs and films.

Collections like these are also important as they are documents that can act as an immediate reminder of our past and all of the changes through to today. The numerous photographs of Drogheda down through the years serve to remind us how much our town has changed. For long-time residents, it can be easy to forget the historical buildings, the medieval layout of the streets and lanes, the importance of the town in Irish history as a whole; when you see St. Laurences Gate every day you can fail to notice it after a while. It becomes a sort of historical blind spot. People have other things to worry about in their daily lives than old buildings and local history this is true, but these buildings and customs and local speech are what makes us different and standout, & forms our own identity that's not linked to anyone else. The ancient town informs the new and by extension, its inhabitants.

The local aspect of the collection features scenes from the Boyne valley and the surrounding area, with coracle, or currach, makers featuring prominently. On our Facebook page we recently featured a very interesting short film on the making of these vessels, here's the link to the page to check it out: Drogheda Millmount Museum Facebook. The exhibition in the Arts Centre, running from 27th June-31st August, will feature not only the photos but also talks, screenings and workshops for children. Definitely a date for the diary.

Droichead Arts Centre link: The Boyne Valley in the Albert Kahn Collection (1913)