“Any day here teaches proportion,

any walk sketches infinity”

 Woodstock Promenade is a public art training project featuring work by six artists from Kilkenny and other parts of South East Ireland. The artists, painter Gillian Campden, sculptor Philip Cullen, poet Carmel Cummins, textile artist Caroline Schofield, media artist Deirdre Southey and installation artist Niamh White,have created the artworks over a three week period with support from Rick Faulkner, Kate Maddison and Christine Keogh of Chrysalis Arts, a public art training and development agency based in North Yorkshire, UK and Kilkenny County Arts Officer, Mary Butler. The project was commissioned by the Arts Service of Kilkenny County Council.

The project is one of a series of live training initiatives conceived and developed by Chrysalis Arts based on the principle of  ‘Training for Real’. This involves supporting the artists through each stage of the public art process, from applying for commissions, through to the realisation and installation of the artworks, and their presentation to the public.

The artworks are designed to be temporary, as part of a one-day event, although the intention is that some will remain in place for the rest of the summer.

It was the feeling of the artists that the famous, tree-lined walks of Woodstock needed little embellishment. They have therefore chosen to focus on two different themes: celebrating the people who created, restored and maintain the gardens, both past and present, and secondly, capturing a sense of the formality and ordered leisure of life at Woodstock in Victorian times, from promenading in the formal gardens to taking tea.

The theme of teatime is referred to in Philip Cullen’s cast and decorated Teacups and in Niamh White’s series of Tea Portraits.

Writer Carmel Cummins, who lives in Inistioge, was also commissioned to write a series of poems inspired by Woodstock. These poems thread through the artworks in the form of sculptural installation, as part of Deirdre Southey’s sound and video installation and in Caroline Schofield’s evocative figures with their reference to Lady Louisa Tighe and the local craft of lace-making. Gillian Campden’s large-scale mural celebrates the gardens as they are today and also incorporates some distant images from Woodstock in its prime. The dedicated staff of Woodstock are also not forgotten.

An additional contribution to the project is the work produced by local school children, arts and community groups who have taken part in a  programme of workshops including painting, textiles and casting. All of the artists took part in the workshop programmes.

The enamelled signs have been designed by artist Van Nong following consultation with the Neighbourhood Renewal Team and a series of community workshops with residents of the Lancashire Hill and Heaton Norris areas.

The main objective of the project was to bring together older and younger members of the local community, to challenge their perceptions of each other and explore issues.

The Lancashire Hill subway is currently unattractive and perceived as unsafe by many because of poor lighting and lack of natural surveillance. The aim of this project is to make the subways an attractive and less threatening public amenity and contribute to positive community cohesion.

This project is the first of three phases to improve the area.

Chrysalis Arts has delivered a specialist training for local artists in St Helens to develop their public art skills and how to work to commissions. This programme was focused on six local artists who lack the opportunities for support and professional development. The training programme was linked to the potential for public artworks on real sites around the area, which may be subject to regeneration initiatives. The sites chosen were;