Mayo Arts Service invites you to join an eight-week photography and storytelling project ‘Perspectives on Home’ with folklorist and visual artist, Michael Fortune.
‘Perspectives on Home’ is an online series of get-togethers with Michael and people from Mayo. As part of the project, you will take photographs of your garden, home, sheds and laneways and yards and share stories of why they have a particular personal association to you, your family, and your neighbours.
You must stay within your 5km and the objects and your stories can be as big or small as you like; an old toy from your childhood, a vintage tractor, a spade belonging to your grandfather, a pioneer badge, an old dance hall ticket, your family dresser, or a farmyard gate.
The project will result in the production of a new body of photographs and recorded conversations based on your stories and photographs.
Wexford man Michael Fortune is no stranger to Mayo, he has worked in the county in the past on a folklore collection in 2008 and in 2015-2016 of The Irish Dresser Project in conjunction with the Arts Office and the Museum of Country Life where he documented dressers and their stories all around the county.
He has a huge interest in people and the lives we live, and this project sets about channelling this interest into a socially based creative activity for those involved.
This project is open to anyone aged between 18 to 118 who owns a smartphone. You can join on your own, or with a family member. You do not need a camera or previous experience of taking photographs.
The online group meetings will take place weekly on Zoom: Times: 9.30am to 11am. Dates: March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, April 5, 12 and 19. This project is free to join but places are strictly limited.
If you are from Mayo and would like to get involved with the project, contact [email protected]/ (094 ) 964666. The Arts & Aging Programme is a shared strategic initiative of Mayo County Council and the Arts Council.
This keep-well campaign is brought to you with thanks to Healthy Ireland, an initiative of the Government of Ireland, with funding from the Healthy Ireland Fund, and the Sláintecare fund delivered by Pobal.
