Whatever backwater of the suburbs I emerged from, I'll never know what I missed by never attending the National Gallery's Children's Art Holiday at Christmas. Celebrating its 35th birthday this year, the Art Holiday was certainly way ahead of its time, and now it knits in nicely with the gallery's considerable crop of outreach projects and schools programmes - and the Ark, the Children's Arts Centre in Temple Bar.
It was dreamt up in 1962 by James White, then curator of the Hugh Lane Gallery in Parnell Square, as a way of connecting kids with real-life artists. The first one involved artists Blaithin nic Chnam hin, Fr Jack Hanlon, Brigid Ganly RHA and Noel Sheridan (now director of the NCAD) - each of whom were paid £15, courtesy of a grant from the Arts Council of Fr Donal O'Sullivan, S.J. From 1964, the Art Holiday moved to Merrion Square when White became director of the National Gallery. Over the years, the artists have included Gerard Dillon, Maurice McGonigle, Cecil King, Bea Orpen, Anne Yeats, Barry Cooke, Michael Farrell, Robert Ballagh, Charlie Harper, Gerald Davis, Terry Willers, Pauline Bewick, John Byrne, Eithne Carr, Wendy Shea and many more. Quite a collection to present to a munchkin public, but it has always worked out well. More recently, the Holiday has contracted from a week-long event into three afternoons, with bright ideas such as costumed dramatisations of paintings, (such as The Mar- riage of Strongbow and Aoife, by Daniel Maclise).
This year, the artists are Diana Copperwhite and Trevor Geoghegan (old hands at this game), and a newcomer, painter Carmel Mooney (28th, 29th and 30th December, respectively). Each afternoon kicks off with festive music from the Royal Irish Academy Junior String Group, with a lorryload of 8 - 12-year-olds conducted by Sheila O'Grady.
Calling it an art holiday sets up expectations among the hundreds of children who descend on the Gallery. And while it's an ideal opportunity for parents to dump sprogs and go foraging through the early sales, it is one of those extraordinary occasions when the kids take over this great civic space, colonising its rooms and galleries, and squealing uninterrupted down the long corridors to the loos.
The core of the chaotic activity is having the kids set up their untidy bivouacs in the shadow of the huge gilded history paintings of flesh and sky, and tongues clenched between teeth, knuckling down to the art. Marie Bourke, long-time education officer and now keeper at the gallery, is behind all the activities and the many cheaply-priced colouring-books. Over the years, she has noticed the kids becoming more exuberantly confident, which she puts down to "a gradual sea change in the educational system."
While "Art" can be very much a privilege of the middle classes, Bourke remembers many less well-off faces coming in, such as the nun who arrived every day with a streel of disadvantaged kids. Or every so often, a bunch of littl'uns who would wander in, led by an older child - having walked from some inner city spot nearby. Most importantly, the Art Holiday is free and open to all (so long as you can convincingly masquerade as a child), while grown-ups are corralled at the back of the hall. So get down there with your crayons or dayglos - but even if you arrive empty-handed, you'll still be looked after.
Further information from the National Gallery, tel: 01-6615133.