Letterfrack's furniture college has brought its beautifully made contemporary pieces to Farmleigh for a month-long exhibition. It's a boost for Letterfrack, and a treat for Dubliners, writes Emma Cullinan.
When Queen Sonja of Norway stayed in Farmleigh House in Phoenix Park, Dublin, recently, she nipped across the garden to a former cowshed - now a gallery space - to see work by some of Ireland's most talented craftspeople. She was impressed. She likes contemporary art. She even has a portrait of herself by Andy Warhol.
"Being able to show visiting dignitaries the exhibitions in a private capacity is a wonderful way to be an ambassador for Irish art," says curator Catherine Giltrap.
A neighbour, Mary McAleese, popped over in her spare time to see the recent Forty Shades of Green exhibition, which had pieces such as the beautiful, frighteningly thin ceramics of Sara Flynn and pure and simple Irish oak vessels by Liam Flynn. "She was very impressed," says Giltrap. "Irish craft really interests her."
When Bill Clinton stayed recently it was between exhibitions. But he could have seen the Eileen Gray furniture and art by William Orpen, William Scott, Patrick Scott, Patrick Collins, Barry Cook and others in the main house.
But Farmleigh is not just for visiting VIPs. The Office of Public Works wouldn't want anyone to be put off by its grand appearance. All summer, families have been coming to picnic in the grounds and take in the Italian eateries, the lake, the donkeys and a special breed of black cow.
While the cows are no longer welcome in their former shed (and, anyway, the new polished stone floors aren't very hoof-friendly), members of the public are encouraged into the Farmleigh Gallery.
The space has been converted with style and respect by Gerry Cahill Architects. You enter through a gravelled courtyard and ascend a ramp embedded with neat lights. Inside, the two long galleries, forming an L around the courtyard, are painted in white, and the walls float off the floor through the use of shadow gaps (where the plaster ends about an inch off the floor and there is a recess beneath it).
The exhibition space is "chameleon-like", says Giltrap, being magically transformed to suit whichever exhibition is there: and there have been nine this year.
She describes the space as a jewel box, which is a coincidence because the designer of the space for the upcoming Furnishing the Details exhibition, Paul Austen, told me earlier that he has treated each of the exhibits like pieces of jewellery, "because they have been made with such care". Coloured velvet panels form a backdrop to each of the pieces on show from the Letterfrack Furniture College, part of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. Austen taught a short course in innovation at Letterfrack and there is certainly inventiveness in the pieces here. There's a slatted chair that opens into a bench (by Brigid Sealy) and a ricochet shower with three solid heads. A jet of water sprays upwards and bounces off whichever head you swivel over the spout, directing it back down onto your body. This has won the designer, John Ryan, a Design Student of the Year award from the Irish Contract Furniture Manufacturer's Association.
What is striking about all of the pieces here is the beautiful finish. "We are more than a design college," says Michael Hannon, head of GMIT Letterfrack. "You need to be able to design and make in order to be a good designer. Our students get a good understanding of the making process - and the first year is devoted to skill-building - whereas on other courses students just get to make prototypes."
The college, he says, takes a very contemporary approach to design and, despite its remote location, attracting key staff has never been a problem. He also has visiting lecturers such as Charles O'Toole, from Dublin, and Alan Tilbury, from Wiltshire, England. "Bringing in designer-makers gives students first-hand experience of the process."
Many of his staff commute from Galway city and beyond but one - Laura Mays - has set up a home and business nearby. She trained as an architect and then worked for woodworking sage James Krenov in the US before setting up in Letterfrack.
The key to getting good staff, says Hannon, is to liaise closely with them about timetabling, be a bit flexible and make sure they're busy when they're at the college. "There's a fantastic dynamic between staff and students," he says. "A lot of that is down to the young energetic staff here at the moment. Many students are older than them."
Those students come from near and far - some from places such as Spain and Germany. The people who are harder to attract are furniture companies and prospective students, who find the journey too long to contemplate for a day's visit. Hence, Hannon is thrilled to be able to bring examples of what the college does to Dublin. "It still amazes me how little Letterfrack is known in certain sectors. It's a tremendous opportunity to be able to bring our work to the east coast."
One thing that has put Letterfrack on the map (apart from its sad history as an industrial school) is the college building by architects O'Donnell and Tuomey. Hannon's regret is that it was commissioned before his time and wasn't designed with the current users as clients.
The community-owned rural development company Connemara West bought the building in the 1970s and set up the furniture college to encourage locals to stay in the area. It later teamed up with what is now GMIT to get accreditation for the many degree and diploma courses it now offers.
Giltrap isn't forthcoming about any dignitaries who will be staying at Farmleigh while the furniture exhibition is on, but whoever it is will no doubt be impressed by the standard of furniture-making in Ireland.