By Dan Walsh
The Things Around Us’ is an innovative community collection project exploring the objects in the hands of ordinary people that reveal the social history of Kilanerin and district running for four weeks, and it kicks off this Sunday, June 8th 12-3pm.
The project has been devised by artist/folklorist Michael Fortune in conjunction with David Williams and Conor Murphy from Kilanerin Tidy Towns, and during the month of June they will be hosting a series of pop-up road-show styled sessions in Kilanerin Community Centre and inviting people to bring their object along to tell Michael and the team all about it.
The project will be centred around people and the objects they hold and cherish within their homes, their farms, their yards and their lives and invite them to bring forward objects to share their stories and spark memories and conversations across the ages.
These may range from old black diamonds; used from funeral customs, old farming implements or to more recent objects such as an old Bosco mug or to the first mobile phone ever owned.
Every single aspect of Irish social history will be explored through the fascinating objects brought to the roadshows and we hope to widen conversations around our lives and our history.
As the village has become home to many new residents recently, efforts will be focused on engaging new residents to support and strengthen the sense of community in the area.
So if you have an old letter, an old tool or anything with a story, come along to Kilanerin and share it take photos and record its history. An exhibition of the findings will be presented as part of the Kilanerin Heritage Weekend in early September.
The dates are: Sunday, June 8th (12pm – 3pm). Thursday, June 12th (6.30pm to 9.30pm). Sunday, June 15th (12pm – 3pm) and Sunday, June 22nd June (12pm – 3pm).
The project is kindly supported by the Arts Department of Wexford County Council via their ‘Creative Communities Scheme’. For further information please contact Michael on 087 6470247 or David on 087 4197140.
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