Cork artists bring work to pop-up Gallery Mór in time for Christmas

Rural life in Ireland can be isolating, whatever your circumstances, but especially so for artists, writes MARGARET DONNELLAN.

“You spend a lot of time in the studio on your own – thinking, researching, painting, sculpting, whatever it might be”, explains East Cork-based illustrator Victoria Tammadge. “It can be quite a solitary practice”.

City-based creatives have a lot of activity at their doorsteps, between gallery openings, cultural events, artistic workshops, and more, but for those based in rural areas, it can be more difficult to find a community of like-minded people.

Recognising this problem, Jessica Bonenfant, of Greywood Arts in Killeagh, established the Mór Collective nearly three years ago.

The Mór Collective is an artist-led membership organisation for people based in rural East Cork and West Waterford who are working in the visual, performing, and literary arts.

The group raises awareness of the work of artists in these rural communities and supports their endeavours through regular meetings, workshops, and events.

One such event is Gallery Mór, a new pop-up gallery and shop on North Main Street, Youghal, that showcases the work of over 30 Collective members. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am-4pm, with late opening on Fridays and Saturdays until 6pm, the gallery will run until the end of December and features a rotating display of visual, literary and performing arts.

Visitors to the gallery can meet the artists themselves, watch them at work, and attend talks and workshops. And with Christmas round the corner, Gallery Mór is also the perfect place for gift shopping, offering a wide range of locally-made paintings, sculptures, ceramics, prints, books, cards, CDs and more.

Gallery Mór is entirely staffed by Collective members. As Victoria Tammadge explains: “It gives artists an opportunity to get out there and talk to people about their work, and explain what it is that they do.”

Victoria has worked as the Mór Collective co-ordinator since its early days. “There were lots of artists in our region, across that whole area of East Cork and West Waterford, but nothing really linking them up,” she says of the group’s inception.

Greywood Arts approached the Cork County and Waterford City and County Council Arts Offices to pitch an idea for a rural network of artists and the rest, as they say, is history.

“They loved it,” recalls Victoria. “So, they decided to run a pilot which is co-funded between the two Council Arts Offices.

“They selected 12 artists, six from each region. At that stage, we were running a kind of six-month pilot in consultation with the artists to ask them what they need and what they want, what would help them. And that’s how the Collective was founded.”

From these humble beginnings of a dozen members, the Collective has grown from strength to strength. Nearly 40 artists signed up during its first year, and the group now has 58 members working across a wide range of disciplines, as Victoria outlines: “We have writers, we have sound artists, musicians, visual artists – illustrators, sculptors, ceramicists. We like to offer a programme which is useful to all kinds of creative disciplines.”

Still supported by the joint Cork County and Waterford City and County Council initiative, Mór Collective offers a busy annual programme for members, from monthly meetings to seasonal social gatherings like summer excursions and a Christmas event.#

Continuing professional development is also important for the Collective as members get together to share skills.

“We have salon-style shows,” says Victoria, “which are an opportunity for members to come together a few times a year and share their own work and their own practice in consultation with the group”.

Such get-togethers help to beat the aforementioned sense of isolation that can often come with a life in the arts – and in a rural area to boot.

The sense of community fostered by the Collective has been invaluable for the artists involved.

“When we all started to come together, we were actually laughing at how many of us there was,” said Victoria. “We found there was a very, very large number of people working in East Cork and West Waterford, and they didn’t know there were people literally up the road, around the corner, and in the next village practicing art. And that has been a huge backbone for the network.”

While connections between artists have been forged, the Collective has also been busy connecting rural communities with the arts world. Mór artists exhibit together at least two or three times a year, and the Collective are always thinking of new ways to reach the public. This latest venture, Gallery Mór, is made possible through funding from Creative Ireland’s Creative Start-Up Scheme.

“We said we should put ourselves out there and apply this year”, says Victoria of the scheme. “And we got it, and we’re absolutely thrilled! An opportunity to share and then sell work in a curated and supportive environment, working together as a group, is incredibly powerful. The artists are finding huge benefit”.

Gallery Mór has been such a hit, in fact, that the Collective are already looking ahead to explore how the idea can be expanded.

Bringing artists together and providing a sales platform that can support their practice is crucial to supporting rural art, as Victoria considers when looking to the long-term future for the group.

“This is the idea behind the pop-up – something that we can carry forward in a really positive way that will support members, and maybe even give the Collective a more permanent home of its own”.

Meeting the artists 

Walking along North Main Street in Youghal, it is plain to be seen from the street outside that Mór Gallery features a dynamic display of visual, literary, and performing arts, ceramics, and prints - with books, cards and CDs, writes CHRIS DUNNE.

Visitors like myself have the opportunity to meet the artists, explore their creative processes, and take part in workshops, public talks, and creative salons designed to inspire and connect the community.

Artist, Ed Kuczaj, who hails from near Clashmore, formerly taught at the Crawford Art Gallery Cork, and facilitated the MA in Art Therapy 2017. He says he was encouraged to join the eclectic group by fellow artist John McHarg. “When I moved here from the UK, John, who graduated from the Cork School of Art in 1974, and is a 2005 MA graduate, encouraged me to join the Mór Collective,” says Ed.

“It is fantastic to work with other artists that I never even knew existed. Our monthly meetings in Greywood Arts and in The Old Market House Arts Centre, when we collaborate with other artists, are a real opportunity to showcase our talents, as is the pop-up shop here on North Main Street.”

Cultural life is alive and well on Main Street Youghal.

“This gallery adds to the cultural life in Youghal,” says Ed.

“The venue gives 50 artists the opportunity to present their work on a revolving basis.”

Ed works from his studio at home where he enjoys the scenery and light surrounding it.

“Art is my passion, and I intend to continue it now that I’m retired from work.”

John, of the same mind, and who shares the same passion as his friend and fellow-artist, likens art to a vocation.

“It is a necessity,” says John.

“It’s like the artist is compelled to create. There is a longing and a loneliness connected with art.”

Aileen Swansen, who went back to school to do Cartoon Animation in St John’s College, Cork, although her degree is in Graphic Design, says the Mór Collective is amazing.

“After I left St John’s, I found myself feeling a big gap in terms of having community,” says Aileen.

“I have a real-life, non-creative job so I often don’t have people who understand what I’m trying to do in my free time.”

For the Mór Collective, art is not a hobby; it is a way of life.

“Art often gets called a hobby,” says Aileen.

“And it is extremely difficult to explain that it’s more like a vocation, or even a compulsion!”

Like-minded people need no explanation.

“It’s very comforting to be around others in the Collective who ‘just get it’, and a nice reminder that other artists exist,” says Aileen.

“An artist’s life can be very lonely. You are on your own a lot, so the monthly meetings can really fill your cup, especially if I am going through a block. Jessica and Vicky at Greywood Arts are so supportive doing incredible work.”

Being an artist is a gift.

“It is a gift,” says Aileen. “I would say to people interested in art to find their tribe. You need supportive people around you who understand your choice to be an artist. And I think it is more to live every aspect of your life as an artist rather than worrying about each individual piece being ‘good’. Don’t worry too much about what others think, especially if they are not creating art themselves. And to quote Jake the Dog from Adventure Time; ‘Sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something’.”

The Mór Collective members are not ‘sorta good’ at what they do. They are brilliant at what they do. Admiring one of John’s works at Mór Gallery, a lino print of a sea-faring scene, you can almost touch the creativity and vivid imagination immersed within the piece.

Nature expresses itself all around us and on the ocean floor.

“The pattern that the puffer fish create on the ocean floor is pure ingenuity,” says John. “It is an artistic ritual.”

The ritual of art is ageless.

“An 84-year-old man has joined us,” says John. “He began by wanting to paint portraits of his grandchildren. He discovered his talent. Creativity is all around us.”

I marvel at the artistic examples of creativity around me in Gallery Mór. The variety and the originality of the exhibits are mind-boggling, even to my untrained artistic eye.

“Writing is creative,” says John, displaying his natural charm.

“What you do is very creative.”

And just like that, 74, North Main Street is magically transformed into my very own creative wonderland.

• Gallery Mór is open Wednesday to Sunday on 74, North Main Street, Youghal, until the end of December. See www.morartistscollective.com or follow Mór Artists Collective on social media.