'I find this fascinating. I could see myself working as an artist'

A project in Co Longford is picking up on Ireland's increased interest inthe visual arts - and on its business sense, writes Louise Holden

There was a time when announcing in school that you wanted to be an artist didn't go down too well. Budding painters and sculptors were steered gently in the direction of a more commercially viable career. But official Ireland is gradually beginning to realise the benefits of encouraging visual artists, just as it acknowledges our debt to the writers and musicians who have defined us, attracted international attention to us and brought richness to our lives.

One sign of this new attitude is Longford County Enterprise Board's decision to fund a Transition Year arts project for schools in Co Longford. The backing comes with one condition: the would-be artists must learn about the business of art as well.

The Aisling Children's Art Festival Project involves three schools and three local artists working together to create original works. The project enables students to sample the professional artistic life. Workshop time is accompanied by business tuition from art agents, gallery managers and others working in arts administration, who advise the young artists on how to make money from their talent.

The professional setting of the Atrium Gallery, at Backstage Theatre in Longford town, will house an exhibition of the students' work when the project is complete.

This year local professional artists Kevin Casey, Donal Dunne and Doug Fox Roberts are working with Longford's Templemichael College, Granard's Cnoc Mhuire Secondary School and Moyne's Lanesboro Community School, providing workshops in woodturning, weaving and painting.

The artists' workshops are made up of 10 hours' teaching, which can be worked in any format that suits both school and artist. Because there is a business component to the working life of the commercially successful artist, sessions are also arranged on the marketing, administration and hanging of exhibitions. In the final weeks of the project some students will assist in the design and printing of invitations to the Atrium Gallery show, and of the exhibition catalogue.

The work of all participating students will be submitted for sale at the show and the proceeds of any work sold, after commission is deducted, will be paid to the students. The exhibition opens on April 28th.

The project has received an enthusiastic response from all the participating schools. Many of the students involved have had little previous experience of the visual arts and many have been pleasantly surprised at their own creativity and capabilities. Some have shown themselves to be young artists in the making.

Doug Fox Roberts is working with 10 students from Lanesboro Community School on a range of artistic works of their own choosing. The unifying theme is reclamation - all the materials used have been sourced by students from rubbish, including discarded wood and paper. Fox Roberts is charmed by the level of enthusiasm and believes that at least two in his group could have a future in the visual arts, although he's not naming names.

Donal Dunne is a sculptor and artist working on a weaving project with 10 students from Cnoc Mhuire. His group are following a more structured programme, with each making a seagrass-weaved stool from a template that Dunne has provided.

"This is a very ancient Irish craft that is in danger of dying out," says Dunne. "The students have a certain amount of freedom in the design but basically they are making the stools as they have been made in Ireland for generations. Once they learn this skill they will never forget it - they can pass it on to their own children. If even one of the students takes away an interest in this craft it will help to carry it through to the next generation."

Alan Breslin, a student from Lanesboro, is pursuing his personal fascination with Egyptian art and history in the creation of jewellery made from papier-mâché and gold leaf.

"I have learned so many new techniques in the last few weeks: modelling, printing, moulding, sculpting," Breslin says. "I am also learning a lot about using different textures and colours together. I find this fascinating. I could really see myself working as an artist."

Michael Lyons, deputy principal of Lanesboro, is delighted that his school was invited to take part in the Aisling project.

"I am particularly interested in the enterprise and business aspect of the project - it provides the perfect marriage of the practical and the artistic," he says. "This studio work really stretches the students, helping them to push out their own boundaries. This is the way education should be."