WELCOME to the July Newsletter
Summer is officially here, and just in time for our new solar panels to take full advantage of the long days, even if there isn’t as much sunshine as we would have hoped for!
We’re striving every year to be more eco-conscious here at No. 4 Castle Street - all our lighting stock is LED format since 2017 - and it is certainly worth all the upheaval and disruption of the last couple of months to get the roof completely replaced and insulated and the panels installed. It’s a small contribution to a more sustainable future for the next generation.
We would like to say a massive thanks to all our contributing artists and visiting public for their forbearance and understanding during the renovation.
Our big news for July is, of course, that we are delighted to welcome Cairde Visual to Hamilton Gallery for the first time, showing now until 29 July. In its 7th edition, this dynamic and vibrant open exhibition will feature a range of work from both Irish and international artists across all media.
Cairde Visual is an artist led initiative which has been founded and facilitated by Sligo based artists. It has been our pleasure to support the exhibition each year by offering an award of a solo or duo exhibition.
The most recent winner of the Cairde Visual / Hamilton Gallery Award back in 2019, was artist Heidi Wickham, whose exhibition ‘Inside the Circle’ Exploring Cold Spaces opened here with us in 2021 due to the pandemic.
“Winning The Hamilton Award was a huge surprise for me, I was in Scotland and received a text! After making some pieces, the pandemic halted everything and rather than mothball the prepared work, I started a whole new project in early 2021. It's a beautiful gallery and I've had the pleasure of exhibiting in group shows over fifteen years, but a solo is a completely different animal. Hamilton Gallery has been very supportive of both local and international artists, with the highest level of professionalism and kindness. The resulting body of work combined my passion for paint and sculpture, creating an immersive experience with sound and texture. Everything that was for sale, sold and enabled me to buy a two week trip some four hundred kms inside the Arctic Circle on the borders of Norway and Russia. That's what art can do.”– Heidi Wickham
The organisers of Cairde Sligo Arts Festival and all of us here at Hamilton Gallery wish to thank this year’s Cairde Visual selection panel Aidan Crotty, Marilin North and Lorna Watkins
Three significant awards are linked to CAIRDE VISUAL again this year, and we’re delighted to announce this years winners are:
Anna Leask - 36 Views of #BenBulben
Winner of The Model - Artist Residency Award
Brian Mc Donagh - The Nymphs of da Gai
Winner of the Cosgrove’s Delicatessen -€1,000 cash award
Helen Merrigan Colfer - Temple vi (Flutter)
Winner of the Hamilton Gallery Award
The opening reception of the Cairde Visual was held at City Hall on Saturday 2 July, where the winners of the awards were announced.
Tara McGowan, Deputy Mayor Rosaleen O’Grady, Brian Mc Donagh, Anna Leask and Martina Hamilton
Barra Cassidy & Derval Symes
Martina Hamilton, Lorna Watkins and Barra Cassidy
Martina Hamilton with Helen Merrigan Colfer’s winning sculpture, Temple vi (Flutter)
Our annual Yeats themed exhibition, Lapis Lazuli has given way to Cairde Visual 2022, however if you’ve not managed to see it yet, the exhibition will return for an extended run immediately after Cairde Visual, to coincide with the 63rd International Yeats Summer School, which this year runs from Thursday 28 July – Friday 5th August, and is the longest running Literary Summer School in the world!
As a keepsake for Lapis Lazuli, and for Yeats Day 2022 we’ve produced a 4th edition of ‘Poem in your Pocket’ series, featuring a handful of W B Yeats poems, including Lapis Lazuli, which you can pick up for free in the gallery, to muse over with a coffee, after you’ve seen Cairde Visual or Lapis Lazuli when it returns.
#YeatsDay 2022 Logo
We were also thrilled that the #YeatsDay communal poetry celebration this year trended up to No. 1 on Twitter in Ireland on the 13 June – a great achievement for this annual Yeats Society initiative which is sponsored and co-produced by Hamilton Gallery each year.
Finally, in May we had a surprise visit from His Excellency Akhilesh Mishra, Ambassador of India to Ireland and his wife Mrs. Reeti Mishra. They are both keen advocates of the arts and we hope that their visit will inspire and result in future arts collaborations between Ireland and India.