Art and heritage workshop at former Athlone Workhouse

Artist Mimi Seery and historian Gearoid O'Brien warmly invite the local community to take part in an Art and Heritage workshop at Abbey Road Studios, Athlone, on Friday, May 3.

In the workshop, participants will be guided through the history of the former workhouse building.

They will be showing foodstuffs typical of the diets of the inmates, their workday, stories of the inmates and of kindly people.

Participants will be decorating and creating individual cairns as both a response to what has been learned and to honor those that occupied the building.

This immersive workshop is centered around acknowledging the past through stories, group discussion, and finally art making. Connecting with our ancestors is difficult because they have now passed.

However, by practicing traditional culture in the form of placing stones on cairns to honor the dead we can find a way to share a thought, a prayer or a blessing appropriate to past traditions and beliefs.

Art materials, snacks and refresments provided. Workshop is free to attend. Booking is essential as spaces are limited.

To register online go to www.eventbrite.ie and search - I’ll put a Stone on your Cairn - or contact Mimi at mimi.seery@gmail.com. This workshop is supported by Westmeath County Council and Creative Ireland.