A SMALL island off the west Cork coast was the venue for an unusual conferring ceremony yesterday as students who participated in an honours degree course in art at the offshore location received their degrees in the local community centre.
Sherkin Island, off the coast of Baltimore in west Cork, has become the first island location to host a third-level degree course – being the official location for a full honours BA degree programme in visual art.
Yesterday, seven final-year students from the four-year BA in visual programme organised in conjunction with Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) received their degrees.
The historic event was attended by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe and Dr Frank McMahon of the academic council at DIT.
Ciarnad Ryan, who is living in Tipperary but originally from Heir Island in west Cork, said she was proud to be part of the first batch of students to graduate from the programme.
“It is history in the making for Sherkin. But I think this shows it can be done with very little in the way of resources. I lived in Heir Island when the programme started but I moved to Tipperary. However, I still used to come for my classes. It was worth it travelling down. The landscape in Sherkin is fantastic. We had just this fantastic canvas to work from.” Ryan says one of the advantages of working on the island and staying there overnight on occasions was the complete lack of distraction.
For the students in the degree course, there was no “nipping to the bank or post office” but instead a complete immersion in art. The students were expected to do considerable work on their own but they also availed of distance learning via computer from a lecture hall in DIT.
Lectures were pre-recorded and tutors also travelled to Sherkin to give classes.
The conferred students, who ranged in age from 20 to nearly 80, included Sheelagh Broderick, John Desmond, Gill Good, Jill Hegarty, Tess Leak, Ciarnad Ryan and Geoff Stephens.
Some of the students are from islands near Sherkin while others are from the west Cork mainland and beyond. To commemorate their achievement, the BA in visual art degree show is being held at West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen until March 21st.
A spokeswoman for West Cork Arts Centre said the degree programme represented a huge step forward in educational policy for small, isolated communities.
“Such innovation in third-level educational delivery is vital to the future survival and viability of small communities.
“This is a proud and exciting event for all concerned – Sherkin Island as a community, Sherkin Island Development Society, DIT, the arts centre – students and staff of the programme.” Directly and indirectly, many people have contributed to bringing this programme to its present landmark stage in outreach education.”
The degree course followed on from a pilot programme which ran between 2000 and 2003.
This consisted of a series of accredited short courses developed by the school of art, design printing at DIT in partnership with the Sherkin Island Development Society.
West Cork Arts Centre, another partner, collaborated in delivering a series of professional practice workshops.