Industry Turned into Art

3:59 PM Posted by Shana and Tim
53.20959 -7.76166
Sunday June 6, 2010

Today we walked about the Sculpture in the Parklands-an area that had formerly been a bog and rehabbed into a public park and sculpture garden. I was most amazed to learn about the innovative way that Kevin has thought of to combine artistic work with skills and tools so embedded within the community. With the help of workers from Bord na Mona old industrial materials have been shaped, cut, and transformed into beautiful pieces. Walking around the sculptures has allowed me to take in the beautiful Lough Boora and art pieces as well as learn more about how turf had been traditionally excavated by seeing the cutting tools, trains, and storage objects.

Knowing that in thirty years peat excavation will no longer be occurring, I wonder how the skills of the peat workers can be harnessed in other ways. Our visit has also made me think about how other community-corporate-artist partnerships based on Sculpture in the Parklands might work.