SIXTY ARTISTS from around the world, presenting drawings on A5 sized paper, created during the Covid-19 pandemic, will make up The Drawing Box exhibition.
The Drawing Box is a touring exhibition, curated by Diane Henshaw, the arts officer for Fermanagh & Omagh District Council. It opened in Fermanagh in December, and was coming to the Galway Arts Centre for a physical exhibition this month. However, owing to the current Covid-19 restrictions, the show will run as an online event.
The Galway Arts Centre will host The Drawing Box exhibition on www.galwayartscentre.ie and https://www.facebook.com/galwayartscentre, where it will be officially opened by city arts officer, James Harold, on Tuesday January 12 at 2pm. The exhibition will run until Saturday January 16.
The artists taking part
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Among the artists taking part in the exhibition are Kleopatra Mounsella, Emma Stroud, Andy Parsons, Pearl Kinnear, Deirdre Hierlihy, Patricia Kelly, Adrian Deva, Paola Catizone, Annemarie Murland, Julie Murphy, Lorna Crane, Di Henshaw, Bernadette Kiely, Lorna Watkins, and Andrew Crane. Galway artist, Adrienne M Finnerty [whose work, Organic Rhythms, is shown below] - who has been instrumental in bringing the show to Galway - will also be showing work at The Drawing Box.
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The background to the exhibition
The Drawing Box Facebook group was created in 2012 by John Crabtree, Andrew Crane, Patil Rajendra, and Diane Henshaw, with the idea of linking Irish and International artists who had an interest in contemporary drawing and global networking.
This went on to manifest itself in the form of a major small works unframed and unfunded touring exhibition and online network for members. Eventually the original drawing box expo went to archive and was gifted, post the international tour, to The National Irish Visual Arts Library in Dublin.
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However, the group lapsed into inactivity, but was rekindled in March 2020 by Diane Henshaw. She invited 40 selected and culturally diverse members to post pre-recorded studio video clips and stills of artwork. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland awarded Diane some emergency Covid-19 arts funding to administrate the studio visits for the group.
Throughout 2020, the re-activated Drawing Box has helped to give artists some unique and unusual opportunities to be profiled internationally through the networks created, as well as through programming being developed, such as meeting the artist via online studio visits and exhibitions.
