Kerry Writer’s Museum and artist Kathryn Crowley to host ‘Kerry Nest’ exhibition

The Kerry Writer’s Museum here in Listowel will host ‘The Kerry Nest’ exhibition later this month on February 20, and it will be run by artist Kathryn Crowley.

It has taken Kathryn three months to put together the not-to-be-missed exhibition, and it will feature work from what a “multi-generational collective”.

People from all over Ireland and beyond responded to Kathryn’s open call for pieces for the exhibition and these will now all proudly feature in the art and writing exhibition when it opens.

The theme for the exhibition is ‘birds’, and Kathryn said that the exhibition is aimed at teaching people about ecological concerns – “without being preachy” Kathryn, added – through a variety of different mediums.

Speaking to The Kerryman this week, Kathryn gave us a run down of what ‘The Kerry Nest’ will be all about.

“It [the Kerry Nest exhibition] is inspired by ecology and the idea was to create something that everyone could relate to with a central theme that would not be too preachy or anything like that as an educational tool but that would also encourage community creativity through self-expression, visual art and writing,” she said.

“It [the exhibition] will be a mixture of a multi-generational response to the basic theme of ‘birds’. People have sent in poetry, prose, factual writing, visual responses such as photography and painting. There’s a wide variety of mediums,” she continued.

“Myself, I’ll be bringing in things like composting and how everything connects to birds and wildlife. It’s using them as symbols of ecology and environmental hope. There’s two layers to it. There’s beauty, there’s art and community creativity and there’s ecological awareness and environmental education as well.” she added.

“I am looking forward to it but honestly, I tend not to get too excited anymore because after so many years and so many logistics, I just tend to tip away until the eleventh hour. Now, it’s not that I’m not passionate, far from it, but I just tend not to get those mad butterflies or nerves anymore. I suppose I’m a veteran at this stage. I feel like a dinosaur,” she laughed.

The exhibition will run for one to two weeks in the writers’ museum, and people will be able to find out more about the show through by going to the blog/news section at Kathryn’s website, www.artyshe.com.