Our first full day workshop exploring dyeing in August was an Indigo Dyeing workshop with Hilary Bell. We had a wonderful fun day of learning and exploring with the basics of indigo dying, creating patterns using the ancient art of Shibori. This involved tying, stitching and clamping fabric before immersion in the indigo vat creating beautiful and unexpected patterns and textures on, bags, t-shirts and some cute baby vests, cotton and linen.
Open Circle Arts are delighted to be awarded the County winner for Kilkenny in the Arts & Culture category of the National Lottery Good Causes Awards 2019!!!! Its wonderful to get recognition for all the work and creativity happening at Open Circle. We are now through to the Regional final so fingers crossed. 
Open Circle Community Arts are honored to have receive an award for Creative Place in the 2018 all Ireland Pride of Place awards . IPB Pride of Place is an all-island competition that acknowledges the work that communities are doing all over the island of Ireland. The competition focus is about people coming together to shape, change and improve daily lives in their communities.
Citation from the Judges
“…………the key to this entry is that it makes the arts accessible to women of all ages engendering mutual encouragement and inspiration in those involved and a very palpable sense of community……….”
Pictured in the photograph collecting the award are Katherine Rossiter 2018 Open Circle participant, Mary Butler arts officer Kilkenny Co Co, Sheila Jordan community development worker Open Circle, with Collette Byrne CEO Kilkenny Co Co and Cathaoirleach Eamon Aylward.
Open Circle will be in the Castle Yard on the evening of 21st September for Culture Night, in the Gallery and also outside as part of the festivities of the night, with a drop in lino printing workshop.
Open Circle Community Arts is showing a short video at the National Design and Craft Gallery in Kilkenny for Culture Night, from a series of workshops which happened in the summer of 2018.
Two groups of women came together through Kilkenny Arts Office and Open Circle Community Arts, to work with visual artist threadstories, to coincide with False Hoods, threadstories solo exhibition at Kilkenny Arts Office, during the Kilkenny Arts Festival.
The workshops offered the opportunity for discussions around privacy, and how we share images and portray ourselves in the digital age. Working intuitively to explore sculpture and form in textiles, using stitch and fibre manipulation each woman created their own mask and unique portrait.
Creative Writing with published author Tara Heavey, https://taraheavey.com/about-2/ at Open Circle for 6 Monday mornings starting on Monday 17th September 2018 at 10am.
If you are interested contact Sheila 087 1355318 or email opencirclearts@gmail.com
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.
