Estuary: celebrating 25 years of Fingal's Art Collection

Fingal County Council’s Arts Office presented a significant exhibition and public engagement programme to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the council and Municipal Art Collection in 2019. We are now delighted to share this film that was commissioned to capture the quality of the work and the range of engagement and participation

Estuary Celebrating 25 Years of Fingal's Art Collection

We are now delighted to share this film that was commissioned to capture the quality of the work and the range of engagement and participation. 

The exhibition, titled Estuary, was delivered from 12th of September to the 16th of November in Draíocht, Blanchardstown, and included a number of public events and the launch of the second volume of ‘Not in Alphabetical Order’ , a publication highlighting the collection’s latest acquisitions.

The collection comprises of works by national and international artists, graduates, emerging artists and local artists. Over 160 artworks have been acquired since the collection began in 1994, and it has been continually evolving since with new acquisitions being added. The collection contains a broad selection of work by artists such as Eva Rothschild, George Potter, John Kindness, Pamela Leonard, Maeve McCarthy, Patrick Scott and Mick Cullen, amongst others.

Estuary was curated by four Fingal artists, whose art also features in the collection - Una Sealy, RHA, James English, RHA, Joshua Sex and Sanja Todorovic. They describe their process of selecting work for this exhibition as taking in the physical and natural landscape of Fingal and celebrating local and visiting artists that have arrived to the county through the collection. The title refers to three estuaries in the county, special places where the tide meets the stream. The curators observed that the collection could be described as a mixing point, or a meeting point, where seemingly opposed works hang alongside one another.

Fingal County Council would like to thank all the artists, families, community groups, early childhood settings, schools, educators and individuals who participated and made this programme such an enjoyable success.