Cultivating creativity: Festival spurs young artists

AS SOON as the doors opened, parents and children queued in the Garter Lane Gallery foyer yesterday hoping to get a place in the first of many artistic workshops in Waterford city this week as part of the sprOg festival for younger persons.

Seen as the feeder event for the Spraoi festival this weekend, the popularity of the youngsters’ festival highlights Waterford’s ability to promote and sustain community-based arts events. Several hundred children under 12 are set to take part in coming days across a variety of disciplines, from film to music and visual arts. This year, the festival has benefited from funding through major sponsor Genzyme, and much of the programme is free.

In one classroom in the Garter Lane Gallery, artist Marie Claire O’Brien was leading a group through the process of creating colourful fantasy birds. Children cut out their creations and the artist and her assistant helped in coaxing out the youngsters’ artistic tendencies and, just as importantly, in keeping their clothing free of glue and chalk. “My new top is getting destroyed,” said one girl, dressed in what was once a brilliant white jacket.

The participants then marched their decorations to an exhibition opening by Vanessa Daws entitled Kings River to Guillamene. The interactive show featured everything from moving images to clever installations, grabbing the children’s interest and making their transition from art makers to observers a natural one.

This is what makes the sprOg festival fit so well into the arts calendar – children participate in and observe many of its elements. “We used to present far more performance and fewer workshops,” explained festival director Caroline Senior. “We’ve reversed that approach now and we think it provides for a much better experience for the kids.”

Upstairs in the Garter Lane Theatre, teenagers could be heard rehearsing a new play from local writer Adam Wallace entitled Key of D. The show will be premiered in the last week of August at the venue.

The sprOg festival continues until Friday. www.garterlane.ie