Macnas's parades are so closely linked to Galway, the company's home city, that you might be surprised to hear this year's was designed in Co Kilkenny, where it is travelling this weekend. Robert Little reports
The King's River does a brave thing. It rises near Ballingarry, in Co Tipperary, and flows, unchecked, into the heartland of Kilkenny, effortlessly keeping the two rivals apart for a stretch. King Caille is said to have drowned in Callan, south of Kilkenny city, and he gave his name to both town and river.
This story informs The Big River, Macnas's current spectacular, which appeared in Galway last month and will parade through Kilkenny and Callan this weekend.
It was designed by two artists, Sinéad Fahey and Andrew Pike, who are members of Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent
(KCAT), an organisation founded by Camphill Communities of Ireland, a charity established to work with people with special needs.
Fahey, who is from Carrick-on-Suir, in Co Tipperary, is busy preparing for a morning of cooking at Camphill's Grangemockler community when I catch up with her. This is her day job. It is her art, however, more than her cooking, that has gained her recognition. She speaks animatedly about working with Macnas and the collective.
"I could use black ink or colours. It doesn't matter. We have these bamboo pens, and we dip them into the ink. For starting, I like using pencil, to get the lines perfect," she says of her drawings for the project. "I like to do houses, fishes, all different things." She is 33, and has worked at the collective's art and study centre, in Callan, for seven years.
She is one of 13 studio artists who spend three days a week engaged in painting, drawing and a variety of other activities, including The Big River, the culmination of 12 months of intensive work on drawings and designs in collaboration with Macnas. "For myself and Andrew, it was hard. It was a lot of pressure to get everything finished. We thought we wouldn't get it done in time, but fortunately we did."
Andrew Pike, the other half of the KCAT design team, is a youthful and exuberant 60 years of age. "I was hatched in Hatch Street," he quips, and says he was "discovered" in an art-therapy session, when he was told that he didn't need therapy, he needed art. That was before KCAT existed, but the therapist in question was Paul Bokslag, one of the two KCAT co-ordinators.
"I don't do art for money," Pike says. "I do it for the pleasure of painting." He loves to write, too, and The Big River is based on his version of the King's River story, a clever and beautiful depiction of how the drowning king is rescued by a river maid, eventually living together in a coral palace. There are perils along the way, of course, such as an evil pike that lives in the Cave of Desire and is out to destroy their happiness.
The art centre celebrated its fifth birthday recently by hosting a conference on art and inclusion, attended by 200 people. It was at this conference that Visible Visions, a KCAT book, was launched. In an article entitled "Sacred Fruit", Catherine Marshall of Imma comments: "KCAT offers a model for a fully professional art practice for artists, some of whom just happen to have special needs."
Paul Bokslag and Noortje van Deursen, together with Jean Conroy, a tutor at KCAT, and Declan Kennedy, who oversees the studio, have all worked hard with the KCAT artists to help them find their creative flow. The art centre's original home was an abandoned sausage factory on the edge of town. "The first building was very cold," says Pike. "Now we are in a brand-new super palace for art."
There have been several exhibitions and creative exchanges over the years. Pike and Fahey have both travelled to Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Japan. Pike is heading to Australia in November to visit an art centre there with similar aspirations and practices. "KCAT is inspiring," says Helen Gregg, the parade's director. "Just seeing what goes on here makes me want to pick up art materials and paint."
Bokslag stresses what he considers special about the studio. "We run a full-time and a part-time visual-arts course, and they are open to everyone. Some students can go on to art college, but this is not usually an option for people with special needs. The studio provides Sinéad, Andrew and others the opportunity to become professional artists, and we support them in every aspect of that development," he says.
This spirit of exchange consistently bears fruit. Dave Donovan, Macnas's community-projects facilitator, was impressed by the art-and-inclusion conference. Soon, the cogs were in motion and the collaboration began.
"The design work is strong. There is freshness, directness and honesty about it," says Bokslag. Throw in the 100,000 people who will have enjoyed the spectacle at its three venues during the two biggest arts festivals in the country and you have winners all round.
Pete Casby, the project's design co-ordinator, agrees. "For me, one very striking quality is the absence of ego in this year's parade. No baggage came with the designs, and so there was no need to add any to them. With the KCAT input, everyone jelled together to do justice to Pike and Fahey's work."
This was despite the fact that the designers live 100 miles from the builders of the spectacle. Pike and Fahey visited Galway three or four times, including on the weekend of the inaugural parade. Fahey could solve any last-minute questions about a head-dress or a hat by flicking open her pad and drawing the detail; Pike could explain his intentions about the colour of the submarines or the look of the piano. "It never felt like the designers were absent," Casby says, adding that the reaction in Galway on the day was extremely positive.
If the King's River is brave, The Big River is magic. In it, a whole underwater world of creatures and characters, colours and classes rushes along. Come to Kilkenny today or Callan tomorrow and let yourself get carried away.
Robert Little leads a theatre course at Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent
Fahey and Pike's drawings will be on display during Kilkenny Arts Festival at the Friary, Mill Street, Callan, from today until August 20th, 10am-5pm daily