We had a very enjoyable afternoon at Open Circle Arts on Tuesday 14th August for the judging of the Pride Of Place –  Creative Place award.  The Open Circle House was looking wonderful, our exhibition for the AKA Alternative Kilkenny Arts Festival on show for our guests and judges to see

Following a presentation of the programme of activities and projects past and present at Open Circle, the judges had the opportunity to talk to some of the women involved, about their time at Open Circle.  They chatted about Open Circle and the various project they were involved in, including the Social Fabric Portraits where over 90 Kilkenny women stitched their portraits and a selection were unveiled on Interantional Women’s Day on the Lady Desart Bridge.  The Consuming Project , a collaborative theatre project investigating our relationship with clothes and the fashion industry.  Our Paper Cuts and Memory Doll outreach workshops for 2017 and the Textile Explorations  workshops which ran in conjunction with threadstories  exhibition at the Arts Office during this years AKA Festival.  On the day we were all given a  first hand account of the importance of Open Circle Arts to the women of Co Kilkenny.

A very big thank you to all the women who make Open Circle such a success, and in particular to those who came to Open Circle House on Tuesday to tell their stories.  Thank you  to Kilkenny Co Co  for nominating us for the award, and for all their support over the years, in particular to our Arts Officer Mary Butler, who’s continued support enables Open Circle to thrive.  And of course thank you to the judges William Beattie and John Fitzgerald,  Collette Byrne CEO of Kilkenny Co Co, and other guests for coming to our presentation and  for listening to our stories.  Also  Ronan Ryan for all his hard work in supporting all the nominees in their preparations for the awards.

And now we wait to hear in November the outcome of the judging!!! so fingers crossed.