Welcome to the flock

 

“Welcome to the Flock” is an exhibition of bird and flight images created by professional artists and illustrators to highlight the plight of thousands of families who have been forced to migrate to safer places in the world. The exhibition, which opens in the Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford next week, is a collaboration of artists from Illustrators Ireland as well as selected guests. It is supported by IBBY Ireland.

IBBY Ireland and Illustrators Ireland felt that an important contribution to the exhibition would be the inclusion of artwork on the theme of migration produced by residents living in Direct Provision.

Tatyana Feeney, of Illustrators Ireland, spent the day with a group of residents from Waterford Direct Provision. Participants came from backgrounds as diverse as Albania, South Africa and Nigeria, and were encouraged to create images of birds that exist in their countries of origin, or that live only in their imagination.

                   
Through the use of pastels, pencils, collage and paint, participants created images that have become part of the “flock” of artwork.
​“Welcome to the Flock” can be viewed in the Garter Lane Front of House Gallery. The exhibition will run from 9 May to 30 June.