Visitors to Cork's Cornmarket Street next weekend will see an innovative project aimed at preserving and nurturing some of Cork's oldest crafts.
The Hand Skills Conservation Exhibition in the old Guys Building will feature craftworkers accomplished in traditional skills as diverse as stonecutting, lacework, woodwork, decorative plasterering, ironwork, glass restoration, thatching and slate roofing.
Those participating include the Cork Civic Trust, in partnership with the Irish Georgian Society, the Cork Textiles Network and Meitheal Mara. There will also be a display of 18th and 19th century artefacts from the Peter Pearson Collection.
According to John Miller, the Cork Civic Trust director, there are good employment opportunities in the area of conservation craft-work, with a dearth of workers with skills such as decorative plasterwork, which has a long tradition in Cork.
Last year, as part of the trust's Conserve project aimed at identifying shortages in traditional craft skills, the trust drew up a register of listed and old buildings in the city and county and wrote to some 800 owners. "We also contacted the building trade unions, and drew up a corresponding register of skilled craftspeople and then earlier this year we held a training course for those with an interest in conservation work and some 24 people completed it", Mr Miller said. Many of those craft-workers will be at the exhibition. Liz Spillane of the Cork Textiles Network explained that the network grew out of a research project under the EU Arquotex programme on the history of industrial textiles - such as flax, cotton and wool - in Cork city and county. "The network consists of around 40 textile practitioners and all the guilds are represented: weavers, spinners and dyers, lace-makers, the patchwork society, hand-knitters," she said.
Padraig O Duinnin of Meitheal Mara - a group dedicated to the preservation of traditional boat-building skills and celebrating Ireland's maritime culture - has invited Ed McCabe of the Hull Life-Saving Museum in Boston and Dutch boat-builder Kees Prins to give workshops, while Jimmy Meaney, a retired sailor, will give a demonstration on rope and canvas work.
"We'll also be showing how to steam wood to bend it to whatever shape you require and families can come and watch that as well as try their hands at rowing a West Kerry naomhog on dry land," Padraig said. The exhibition will be preceded by a conference on Friday at the Imperial Hotel to highlight what can be achieved by public, private and community sectors working in partnership on innovative projects.
According to Donagh MacArtain of Partners for Innovation at Work, which is organising the conference, the weekend events mark the culmination of a two-year scheme funded by the EU. "We hope the exhibition will promote handcrafts; it will give people the chance to see skills like stone masonry in action. And we hope that it will make people more aware of conservation issues and the conservation skills available," Mr MacArtain said.
"We're hoping that the exhibition will increase the demand for conservation work so that there'll be further employment opportunities for craft-workers skilled in conservation."
The exhibition is free, and open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.