THE 19th Claremorris Open Exhibition opened last week, with Sile de Valera, Opposition spokesperson on Art, Culture and Heritage, performing the official ceremony in the Town Hall last Saturday, writes Brian Fallon. The exhibition runs until September 28th.

Earlier this year, the event had seemed a dead duck when the Arts Council refused more funding after 17 years of grant aid. It is well known that for several years, the Arts Council had been dissatisfied with the various venues found for COE which varied from a school building just outside the town to a run down former cinema. The exhibition had originally been the initiative of a local farmer, John Kirrane, and his wife Angela, who put much voluntary work into it. After the Council's diktat, local effort and sponsors rallied round, including Anglo Irish Bank, enabling the show to go ahead as originally planned.

The 106 works were selected by Rui Sanches, director of the Centre de Arte Moderna in Lisbon. There were numerous entries from the UK among them, and the COE organisers now hope that it will tour Northumberland in November and December.