Student talent showcased in annual furniture exhibition

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Cruthú – Furniture Created in Connemara is the title of a new student exhibition that opened this week at the Letterfrack campus of GMIT. It showcases a diverse range of unique furniture pieces, designed and crafted by degree students in GMIT Letterfrack.

A chair by Kay Woodcock, which is among the pieces being shown, was the winner of the inaugural James and Mary Ellis Award for Excellence in Making.

The Ellis family, who were Quakers, came to Letterfrack in the 1849 to help improve people’s lives locally at a time of great poverty.  Their commitment to sustainable practices was ahead of its time and although they left Letterfrack less than a decade later because of James’s ill health, they made a profound impact on the area.

The criteria for this new award reflected the Ellis ethos and included attention to detail, quality of finish, complexity of making, and student commitment and character.

The award was sponsored by The Quaker Friendly Society and a specially designed plaque will be mounted to display the annual winners.

Author Joan Johnson, who has written extensively about James and Mary Ellis, attended the exhibition opening and presented the inaugural Ellis award to Kay Woodcock. The company MJM Marine from Newry also sponsored a cash prize for the winner.

The Head of Centre of GMIT Letterfrack, Dermot O’Donovan, describes the Summer exhibition as “a great opportunity for visitors to get a sense of what happens on campus during the academic year.

“The projects our students produce as part of their learning are a real fusion of craft, innovation, technology and design. Working with wood as a material is something that we specialise in and the range of techniques used in the furniture pieces give you a great sense of the versatility of wood”.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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