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Involving the Community The primary aim of the South Lough Neagh Arts Initiative is to allow local people to explore and celebrate their unique heritage by engaging with Artists offering a creative experience. The initiative builds on work SLNRA have been involved in over a number of years, including a Cultural Awareness Program and Summer Arts in the Wetlands. Wetlands Artist in Residence, Holger Lönze, has been active within the communities of the South Loughshore, building relationships with local people. He has considered the substantial research completed during the Cultural Awareness Program and this has been the basis for his artistic practice over the past 18 months.
In the first phase of this project the sculptor Holger Lönze developed the artistic concept for this project with the different groups involved, based on research in the area and consultation with members of the local community. The idea of exploring local cultural traditions through art evolved as the central idea of this concept, together with the aim of promoting environmental, social and economic sustainability. Choosing the local tradition of building boats for eel and pollan fishing, Holger worked with the local fishing community and developed a sculptural piece which will be sited in the near future. The piece takes the traditional fishing boats as a reference, playing with the image of sails. He also ran a community workshop to encourage the passing on of boat making skills. A twenty strong group has now been meeting for more than a year every Thursday evening at Maghery Business Center. So far they have made four Dunfanaghy currachs and are currently working on four Kerry and Tory Island currachs, a project funded by the Community Foundation. Phase Two - Community Engagement. In response to the research and ideas being generated by the Wetlands Artists, the steering group began to discuss ways of further involving the local community in the project. In phase 2, Yvonne Cullivan will devise a program of engagement with community, involving exploratory workshops in a variety of media, extending the themes which inspire the sculptural work. These workshops will allow community discussion and recording of ideas and thoughts about the themes and will also allow people to interpret the Arts Trail.
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