Creative Postcards

For 2025’s Creative Postcards exhibition, schoolchildren from St Louis Secondary School (Co. Louth), New-Bridge Integrated College (Co. Down), Coláiste Cois Life (Co. Dublin), St Genevieve’s High School (Belfast), Thomond Community College, Crana College (Co. Donegal), Coláiste an Eachréidh and St Paul’s Community College (Co. Waterford) took part in exploring the theme of Friendship.

Working with selected texts by Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth, alongside illustrations from the National Library of Ireland, students used blackout poetry and creative design techniques to reimagine the possibilities of text and imagery. Through this process, they responded thoughtfully to ideas of connection, empathy and companionship, producing original postcards that celebrated the enduring value of friendship across time and place.

For the 2024 iteration, school children across the network created postcards on the theme of identity with support from their teachers. This project included artwork from approximately 740 students from 20 schools across Ireland and the UK. The exhibition of painter Sir John Lavery's work ‘Lavery on Location’ was displayed at the National Gallery of Ireland from 7 October 2023 to 14 January 2024, and acted as the student’s primary artistic inspiration. Lavery was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1856, 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 work, students began to explore the complexity of identity across these islands.

The students also participated in a virtual workshop with the National Gallery on the work of Lavery and several students travelled to Dublin to visit the collection in person. The student’s postcards were then displayed at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on 22 January 2024, where the showcase was launched by the British Ambassador to Ireland, HMA Paul Johnston and British Council Deputy CEO Kate Ewart-Biggs. You can view photos from that event here. The work has also been shown at the F.E McWilliams Gallery in Banbridge, where it was displayed from 8–10 February 2024. You can view the photos from that event here.

The Climate iteration of the Creative Postcards project included artwork from approximately 36 secondary schools in Ireland and the UK who took inspiration from the J.M.W Turner exhibition ‘The Sun is God’ at the National Gallery of Ireland, on show from October 2022 to February 2023. The schools network included approximately 760+ students (aged 12–18) and in early November 2022 students began working with their teachers to produce creative postcards on the theme of climate. They also engaged with the education department of the National Gallery of Ireland; visited the Rediscovery Centre, Ballymun (National Centre for Circular Economy) and Axis Arts Centre, Ballymun, to be inspired and learn about important issues such as sustainability, circular economy and climate justice with expert Susan Adams.

Inspired by these experiences, students creatively expressed their thoughts through the postcards they made. which were exhibited in a showcase and a catalogue. Finally, the students sent their works to each other in a cross-border artistic exchange. The showcase was launched at the British Embassy in Dublin on 23 January 2023 and in Leicester Grammar School in the UK on 6 March 2023.

The first iteration of the Creative Postcards Project – War Postcards – saw the involvement of 27 schools in Ireland, UK and Spain (who were studying the UK curriculum) engaging a total of 492 students aged 16–18. This project ran from February to August 2022 and culminated in an exhibition in Dundalk Gaol, Co. Louth.