Children’s Hallowe’en masks and props workshops at Ballina Arts Centre
With Hallowe’en just around the corner, this workshop series will give children the opportunity to make their own mask and props for the big night. Under the guidance of artist Kate Callaghan, the children will be introduced to a number of techniques and approaches before they create their macabre creations. Kate Callaghan is an artist and art teacher based in Westport.
The workshops will run on Saturday October 3, 10 and 17. Times: 10.30am to 12.30pm, five to seven year olds from 1.30pm to 3.30pm; eight to 10 year olds. Ticket price €30 for three sessions. Pre-booking for all workshops is essential.
Laura Brennan and Mary Foudy O’Halloran exhibition at Ballina Arts Centre
Throughout the month of October Ballina Arts Centre will host Empty Boxes-Overflowing/keeping still, mountain, an exhibition of work by two Galway-based artists, Laura Brennan and Mary Foudy O’Halloran. The exhibition will be officially open by Paddy Mahon, Ballina Town Manager, on Wednesday October 7, at 8pm, and runs until October 31. Free admission. All are welcome to attend.
Ballina Film Club Autumn Season begins
Ballina Film Club returns this month with its Autumn/Winter Season. The season kicks off on Tuesday October 13, at 8pm, with The Class. French director Laurent Cantet highly-acclaimed 2008 film focuses on a year in a schoolroom presided over by a young teacher, Marin (Francois Bègaudeau ). The school room is in a rough Parisian neighbourhood and the student body is racially mixed. Marin’s particular challenge is, as with any teacher, trying to instil a love of learning in these often recalcitrant adolescents, but the particular setting and make-up of his charges renders his situation extraordinary. Extraordinary, too, are the ways he deals with students, never pandering to them and offering a kind of tough love as he tries to give them all a sense of self-worth as well as proper speech in a France where traditional language is dying.
The film is based on a book by Bègaudeau, recounting his own teaching experience, and he and Cantet discovered their students in a Paris school, holding extensive workshops with them to probe their characters. This all gives The Class a near-documentary feel, making it a unique interweaving of fiction and reality, as when some real-life parents of the kids are also brought into the story. Admission is €7.
Ballina Arts Centre is open from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am to 3pm on Saturdays. For further information, please contact Ballina Arts Centre, Ballina Civic Offices, Arran Place, Ballina. Tel: 096 73593, e-mail [email protected] www.ballinaartscentre.com
