Calling Balbriggan – Artist Dave West is seeking your help! Answers on a postcard please
Fingal County Council is delighted to announce news of a new public artwork for Balbriggan. The work titled “Wish you Were Here” is by local artist Dave West and will be located at the prominent Banks site at Balbriggan Harbour.
Fingal County Council is delighted to announce news of a new public artwork for Balbriggan. The work titled “Wish you Were Here” is by local artist Dave West and will be located at the prominent Banks site at Balbriggan Harbour. This work has been made possible through our ongoing partnership with Iarnród Éireann, Balbriggan and the Our Balbriggan Regeneration Programme
If you live in Balbriggan, local artist Dave West wants to hear from you. To gather inspiration for his new public artwork he wants to find out what everyone loves most about Balbriggan. It might be the beautiful coastline, the historic landmarks or the vibrant community. To facilitate this conversation we are distributing postcards featuring a historic image of the site courtesy of Fingal County Council’s archive section. These postcards will be freely available at a range of prominent community sites including, the Our Balbriggan Offices, Community Centres, Balbriggan Library, The Balbriggan Train Station and more. He would love if you would take the time to write to him for this project, postcards can be returned to all pick up locations or you can also email the artist Dave West directly at [email protected] , Closing Date For Responses 31st March 2022
Mayor of Fingal Councillor Seána Ó Rodaigh advocates that “Art and artists play a vitally important role in bringing our towns and villages to life for local communities and visitors alike. Opportunities like this demonstrate how we in Fingal value and support the creativity and professionalism of the artist in doing so as well as encouraging community engagement with public art projects such as this”
The project is part of the many initiatives currently underway that demonstrate how art and artists can enliven and celebrate our public spaces. Director of the Economic Enterprise, Tourism & Cultural Development Department Emer O’Gorman, shared with us that “The regeneration of Balbriggan is well underway and continues to reach visible milestones in its progress as demonstrated through the current programme of work and its commitment to celebrating all the town has to offer for its communities and visitors alike and art plays a huge part in this. I encourage the people of Balbriggan to take to opportunity to share with the artist what they love about Balbriggan and help shape his vision.”
Dave West works across a variety of media including, painting, mosaic and glass.
Public Art Co-ordinator Caroline Cowley explains that “Our friends at Irish Rail Balbriggan have identified that this is a perfect opportunity to engage with the community so that the work which will be located at this prominent location will tell a story of what everyone loves most about the town. By taking the familiar holiday greeting of “Wish you Here” West is asking the people of Balbriggan to think about how they might describe the town to a visitor. Historically visitors would have taken a train journey out to the beach to enjoy a day at the beach and looking at the old archive postcards we are reminded of legacy of historical posters produced by Irish rail which featured artist renditions of Irish destinations as created by the famous Paul Henry”.
The Banks by Sean Molloy is currently on view at the Harbour and Dave West’s new work Wish You were Here will be installed in summer 2022.
[email protected] . www.fingalarts.ie for full detail of postcard locations
For further information: Please Contact Caroline Cowley – Public Art Co-ordinator
01 870 8449