One Tribe gathers again for launch of art exhibition in Dean Crowe
A new exhibition by participants of Athlone's 'One Tribe' arts ability project was launched on Friday last - but the occasion was about a lot more than just the artworks on display.
It was the first public event to take place in the Dean Crowe Theatre since March 2020, and provided a welcome opportunity for the One Tribe participants, from St Hilda's Services and RehabCare, to finally meet in person again.
"There were some people coming to the launch who hadn't seen their friends in person since Covid," explained Daniel Coulter, programme supervisor at St Hilda's.
"That, in itself, was a really touching aspect of the event. It was about re-connecting people, a re-connection for St Hilda's and Rehabcare, and getting back into the community."
Some 51 art pieces, created by between 30 and 40 service users, went on display when the 'Together As One' art and multimedia exhibition was formally opened by Cllr Aengus O'Rourke on Friday.
The exhibition will continue each day until this Friday, October 29, and members of the public are invited to come and see it for free, though pre-booking through the Dean Crowe website is required.
"We're trying to encourage people to come along and view it, because I think the lads deserve it for the amount of work they put into it," said Daniel.
The One Tribe initiative, which is now in its fifth year, is a partnership between the Dean Crowe, St Hilda's, and RehabCare, which offers the opportunity for service users to take part in art, dance and drama workshops.
Led by Sandy Hughes, Colin Fahy, Aishling Fennell, Muirenn Lyons and Alix Bailey, the project moved online in 2020 and 2021 as a response to the pandemic.
In addition to the artworks on view, the exhibition included a display of footage of participants taking part in dance routines and drama sketches through Zoom.
A documentary about One Tribe is also being created at the moment by Colin Fahy and it's hoped that this will be launched before Christmas. Some of the documentary footage filmed to date was also on display last week.
The 'Together As One' exhibition can be viewed for free from 2pm to 5pm today (Thursday), and tomorrow from 11am to 2pm, with booking required through the Dean Crowe Theatre website.
The One Tribe project is part of the Creative Ireland programme and is funded by Creative Westmeath.