British Council Ireland and the British Embassy in Dublin are proud to support this creative postcard exchange project which comprises artwork from 20 secondary schools in Ireland and the UK who will take as their inspiration Lavery, On Location in the National Gallery of Ireland, which is on show from October 2023 to January 2024.
The schools network worked with their teachers in the classroom to produce creative postcards on the theme of identity. The painter Sir John Lavery, and his work 'Lavery on Location' acted as the primary inspiration for students. Lavery was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1856; he died in Co Kilkenny, Ireland in 1941 and was educated in Glasgow, Scotland and in London, England. A prolific and internationally renowned painter, he is the only individual to receive the Freedom of both Dublin and Belfast in the inter-war period, in a divided Ireland. Through his life and his work students will be able to begin to explore the complexity of identity across these islands.
Inspired by these experiences, students creatively expressed their thoughts and responses in the form of postcards which were featured in an exhibition in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, a catalogue, and which they then exchanged with each other.
This project builds on previous projects led by Fergal Kilkenny and supported by British Council Ireland and the British Embassy in Dublin. The first, which ran from February 2022 - August 2022, looked at the them of War. More recently, from October 2022 - March 2023 the network, took on the theme of Climate and took as their inspiration Turner:Sun is God exhibition, in the National Gallery of Ireland.
