*Members of Inisowiacy Polish Folk Group || Photo Credit: Anna Scanlan
A FREE cultural gathering celebrating straw craft, music, dance and shared heritage between Ireland, Poland and Ukraine will take place at Clare Museum in Ennis this Saturday (October 10th).
Straw Connect: Cultural Gathering will run from 12pm to 4pm and marks the culmination of Straw Connect, a multicultural arts and heritage project exploring traditional craft practices and connections between cultures through natural materials.
The programme will open at 12pm with Circular Straw Loop, a live participatory demonstration led by artist Maeve Collins.
Participants will work together to create a single straw hat while sharing knowledge and stories about the role of straw in Irish traditions and contemporary craft.
At 1:15pm, a short documentary created and directed by Anna Scanlan will explore straw hat-making traditions in Ireland and Poland and the celebrations in which they feature.
The film highlights links between Irish Strawboys and the Polish Easter tradition of Dziady Śmigustne from Dobra, alongside traditional straw crafts from Poland and Eastern Europe.
The official opening will take place at 2:30pm, followed by traditional music, song and dance from Ireland, Poland and Ukraine.
Among those attending will be Artur Michalski, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Republic of Poland in Ireland.
Performances will include the Inisowiacy Polish Folk Group, Polish traditional dance workshops, singing by a Ukrainian group from the Creative Centre of Athlone, and Irish tunes performed by Polish and Irish fiddlers.
Straw hats created during the earlier workshop will also feature in the performances.
Throughout the afternoon, visitors can view a range of artworks and community-created installations, including a photography exhibition by Beata Rosik exploring connections between people, traditions and cultures.
Paintings by Wiktoria Mrozowicz, inspired by Polish writer and painter Józef Czapski’s Żółte Pola (Golden Fields), explore colour, landscape and memory while reflecting on Irish and Polish straw hat-making traditions.
The exhibition programme also includes a Straw Mobiles Installation created by workshop participants and posters by Tanya Bondarenko offering a contemporary artistic interpretation of the Straw Connect project.
Refreshments will be provided, with visitors also welcome to bring baked goods to share.
Curator at Clare Museum John Rattigan said the museum was delighted to facilitate the project.
“Clare Museum is delighted to facilitate this Creative Ireland-funded project, as museums are ideal spaces to bring people together and to help create relationships through their activities,” he said.
“It helps us in our aim to be an inclusive facility, relevant to the whole community.”
Straw Connect is led by Anna Scanlan and supported by Clare County Council’s Creative Ireland Programme, Clare Museum, Clare Local Development Company, Inisowiacy Polish Folk Group and Greener Clare.
The event also coincides with Clare Libraries’ History Week and Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Admission is free, but places are limited. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
