Balbriggan embraces the arts as Culture Night beckons

Balbriggan is fast establishing itself as a new destination for the arts, thanks to the art collective Scéal (sustaining, creative, ecology, arts and living).

The collective of creatives, from all artistic disciplines in north Co Dublin, is aiming to build “an underground movement to make Balbriggan a destination for the arts”.

As a step in doing so, it has now launched How it’s Made: Meitheal, a new exhibition on how art is extracted from nature, in partnership with the locally based Irish Institute of Music and Song.

Running over three weekends in the build-up to the weekend of Culture Night on Friday, September 22nd, the local arts collective, under Italian art historian and visual arts curator Valeria Ceregini, will host a series of 30 events at eight venues in the town. Having secured designation as a Creative Place, which qualifies the town for Arts Council funding, there will be 17 performances, eight workshops and five exhibitions in the town from 34 artists and three scientists, who were paired with artists to teach them how everyday objects are made.

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West Cork country house

On Tuesday, September 19th, Hegarty’s of Bandon will host a live online sale of more than 250 lots to include jewellery, antique furniture and silver. Highlights include lot six, a late-19th-century walnut satinwood inlaid tip up centre table. Described as “a fine piece of antique furniture” the piece, expected to achieve €400-€600 has recently been restored. In jewellery, a whopper (5.9ct) of an oval amethyst surrounded by one carat of diamonds is listed at €2,800-€3,500, while art on offer includes At the Beach by Marie Carroll (lot 20, €400-€800), and in the style of James Butler Brennan, is the finely executed Portrait of a Gentleman (lot 16, €400-€600).

Rushbrooke estate

On Saturday, September 23rd, Lynes and Lynes will hold a sale of the final parts of the estate of the late Craig and Mary McKechnie from Rushbrooke. One of the highlights of the online auction, which includes over 400 lots, is an antique silver cruet stand with eight original glass bottles by Joseph and John Angel, London 1835 (lot 191, €200-€300). There should be quite a bit of interest in lot 127, a watercolour of Fishers Quay in Youghal by Norah McGuinness (€1,500-€2,500), and a large Irish Georgian turf bucket (lot 125, €2,000-€2,500). A set of Cork silver tablespoons in fine condition, by Carden Terry/Jane Williams, is expected to fetch €600-€1,000. The Dictionary of Irish Biography lists the workshop of Williams (who was Terry’s daughter) as having undertaken “some of the most accomplished production of neoclassical silver in Ireland”, adding that two centuries later it is still “highly regarded, widely collected and much sought after”.

Other items of interest include “one of the finest pair of antique cast-iron garden urns on bases that has come our way” according to Denis Lynes, who has been holding auctions at his saleroom in Cork city for the past 40 years, of lot 243 (€800-€1,200). scealcollective.com, hegartyantiques.com, lynesandlynes.com