Call to take part in large art project as part of 2012 festival

COMMUNITIES are being offered the opportunity to get involved with one of the largest public art project’s ever to take place in the UK as part of the London 2012 Festival.

Entitled NEST, the event will take place at T13 in the Titanic Quarter on 20, 21 and 22 of July 2012.

The aim of this project is to put art and culture right at the heart of the 2012 Olympic Celebrations and the project is being funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and is part of the nationwide ‘Artists Taking the Lead’ programme.

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The Northern Irish aspect of the project is devised by award-winning County Down composer Brian Irvine and writer and film-maker John McIIduff. Both artists have forged international careers while remaining committed to the themes and stories of their native Northern Ireland. The NEST project continues their passion to take the region onto the international stage, this time involving the people of Northern Ireland making art on a scale never before attempted.

The artists and a team of volunteers are visiting community groups, schools, choirs, arts centres, concert venues, festivals and offices collecting thousands of household and personal objects that will become a large-scale visual arts installation at the heart of a major performance event in July 2012 involving the Ulster Youth Orchestra and a choir of over 500 singers.

The artists are inviting everyone to donate an object that is of personal significance, great or small. Everyone who makes a donation will be given a baggage label, and asked to write or draw something about the object. The objects will then collected, photographed, filmed and archived.

Irvine and McIluduff describe being ‘overwhelmed’ by the enthusiasm they’ve encountered on their journey collecting the items, saying: “The objects and their labels reveal so much of the personality and emotional currency of Northern Irish people and the diversity is really extraordinary - not only in the range of objects being donated, but in the words and images chosen to accompany them. These objects and labels will inform and inspire the words and music for a new musical performance.

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“This project is a work of art being shaped by ordinary people and is like nothing else we’ve ever been involved in. We’re getting really excited seeing all these objects together in the one place in July. It is going to be a very powerful experience, a moment in time that will never be repeated.”

To be part of this monumental work of art you are invited to bring your donated objects to the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, 200 Newry Road, Banbridge until 9 June. The gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

For more information on this project, or to view some of the objects already donated visit www.facebook/nest 2012 or www.2012nest.com.

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