DHL Ireland Joins Forces With Elephant in the Room Movement to Promote Mental Health Awareness

A great article here from DHL Express from the recent unveiling of their elephant. DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, and DHL Supply Chain Ireland are proud to announce its partnership with the Elephant in the Room movement, a local initiative aimed at destigmatizing mental health and promoting open conversations.

Read the full article here https://www.dhl.com/.../dhl-ireland-joins-forces-with...

Designed in-house

Painted by Andrew Manson Artist from Ballyrogan - A family of artists in Wicklow.

See more works by Andrew here https://ballyrogan.com/andrew-manson

Visual Art Exhibit Available Online

Wicklow People | Wednesday, May 12, 2021 | By Eimear Dodd

Arklow Visual Arts Gallery is holding its latest exhibition online.

A variety of work by local artists can be enjoyed as part of the new show, taking place on the community gallery’s newly updated website. Works by Edina Halo, Sofia Bury, Andrew Manson, Attracta Manson, Sarah Eva Manson, Mary Mitchell form part of the display. The artworks are in a variety of styles that engage imaginatively with the world around us in concrete and abstract forms. The sea and the natural world are a source of inspiration for many of the paintings and drawings included in the exhibition.

Many of the works on display are also for sale as part of the online gallery exhibition. At this time, the Arklow Visual Arts Gallery has moved on from its previous base on Main Street and is searching for new premises for the community art gallery.

To view the latest Arklow Visual Arts Gallery show, visit arklowvisualarts.com

Click on the image to visit the Arklow Visual Arts Gallery website

Click on the image to visit the Arklow Visual Arts Gallery website

Thursday, April the 22nd the incognito Art Sale started at 10 AM.

Thursday, April the 22nd the incognito Art Sale started at 10 AM. There were over eight and a half thousand postcard-sized artworks by over three thousand artists sold online in under two hours raising over half a million euro for The Jack and Jill foundation.

The Jack and Jill foundation provides crucial nursing care in the homes of critically ill children and it was with huge pride that Arklow Visual Arts were able to encourage some of their members to rise to the challenge of producing small works for the worthy cause.

Each postcard was sold without the name of the creator revealed to the purchaser until the sale was complete.

The Artists at Ballyrogan raised more than six hundred euro towards the nursing care for children through the incognito sale.

Arklow Artists also took part in a further charity Art Auction that took place from Friday to Monday, with fewer Artists and larger works of art and no concealing of the artist’s names.

This was the SCOOP (Supporting Children Out Of Poverty) the mechanics of the auction were handled by the invaluable.com platform, and the Copper House Gallery in Dublin for a venue to broadcast the event from.

Nearly four hundred artworks came under the hammer and you could see the estimates and the details of the various artists and their careers. There were a lot of artists that didn’t reach their estimates so a good few bargains were had. The buyers get bargains and the sellers also support the cause of helping children out of poverty, by donating the many and varied works.

Not all the works were made by artists currently represented by the commercial galleries so although there were a lot of works that were in that bland genre ‘Of in the style of paintings that sell’, however, there were others that were challenging in content and execution; an exciting cross-section of the vibrant work of creative persons engaged in Art, both young and old. There had been a chance to acquire work by artists that were represented in some major Irish collections, and others have been making private sales to foreign buyers.

The Artists from Ballyrogan donated eight small pieces and they raised over 2,000 euro for the children’s charity. The total raised over the weekend was over 232,000.00 euro.

Attracta Manson created new artwork for Incognito 2021

Attracta Manson created new artwork for Incognito 2021. Attracta takes part in this wonderful charity art sale every year to help raise money for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.

The artwork preview will be live from 31st March 2021 on https://www.incognito.ie/

Will you be able to spot Attracta’s work?

Curated by Lucinda Hall for the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation in 2017, Incognito remains the largest Public Arts Exhibition in Ireland. Over 3,500 original postcard-size artworks, by new and internationally acclaimed artists, illustrators and designers are sold online, on a first-come-first-served basis.

The Twist

The identity of the artist is only revealed after the piece of art has been received.

Thanks to the generosity of our 2020 sponsors, every single euro from the sale of these works went to the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation to help nurse sick children across the length and breadth of the country.

SCOOP 2021 - Sarah Eva Manson

Sarah Eva Manson will donate two artworks to this year’s SCOOP Art Auction. Online bidding for these paintings will be 23rd to the 25th of April, with the possibility of limited viewings on the 22nd (subject to restrictions).

The SCOOP Art Auctions have become the backbone of our annual fundraising endeavours, allowing us to grow as a unique organisation and to support a wide range of projects, from school buildings to remote education programmes (namely our Music and IT Programmes) for young displaced kids in the Middle East and for young people living in Direct Provision Centres here in Ireland.

In 2020 we ran the event fully online and it was a roaring success raising over 87k. This year we plan to step it up another few gears and run a 3 day fully online event from the 23rd to the 25th of April, with the possibility of limited viewings on the 22nd (subject to restrictions).

And this year, as Covid wreaks havoc on all walks of life – including artists and the arts (which have been crucial to our own development and mission) – we are dividing the final hammer price 50/50 with the artists. We hope this will not only support artists during these difficult times AND raise the funds we need to continue our work, but we are hoping it will lead to a slightly more different, and more exciting, selection of artworks being included.

Bidding and the live broadcast itself will all be available per usual on the Invaluable.com platform. The first batch of artworks will be uploaded the first week of April so keep an eye on our socials and this page.

This one is going to be historic….

SCOOP 2021 - Attracta Manson

Attracta Manson will donate two artworks to this year’s SCOOP Art Auction. Online bidding for these paintings will be 23rd to the 25th of April, with the possibility of limited viewings on the 22nd (subject to restrictions).

The SCOOP Art Auctions have become the backbone of our annual fundraising endeavours, allowing us to grow as a unique organisation and to support a wide range of projects, from school buildings to remote education programmes (namely our Music and IT Programmes) for young displaced kids in the Middle East and for young people living in Direct Provision Centres here in Ireland.

In 2020 we ran the event fully online and it was a roaring success raising over 87k. This year we plan to step it up another few gears and run a 3 day fully online event from the 23rd to the 25th of April, with the possibility of limited viewings on the 22nd (subject to restrictions).

And this year, as Covid wreaks havoc on all walks of life – including artists and the arts (which have been crucial to our own development and mission) – we are dividing the final hammer price 50/50 with the artists. We hope this will not only support artists during these difficult times AND raise the funds we need to continue our work, but we are hoping it will lead to a slightly more different, and more exciting, selection of artworks being included.

Bidding and the live broadcast itself will all be available per usual on the Invaluable.com platform. The first batch of artworks will be uploaded the first week of April so keep an eye on our socials and this page.

This one is going to be historic….

SCOOP 2021 - Andrew Manson

Andrew Manson will donate three artworks to this year’s SCOOP Art Auction. Online bidding for these paintings will be 23rd to the 25th of April, with the possibility of limited viewings on the 22nd (subject to restrictions).

The SCOOP Art Auctions have become the backbone of our annual fundraising endeavors, allowing us to grow as a unique organisation and to support a wide range of projects, from school buildings to remote education programmes (namely our Music and IT Programmes) for young displaced kids in the Middle East and for young people living in Direct Provision Centres here in Ireland.

In 2020 we ran the event fully online and it was a roaring success raising over 87k. This year we plan to step it up another few gears and run a 3 day fully online event from the 23rd to the 25th of April, with the possibility of limited viewings on the 22nd (subject to restrictions).

And this year, as Covid reeks havoc on all walks of life – including artists and the arts (which have been crucial to our own development and mission) – we are dividing the final hammer price 50/50 with the artists. We hope this will not only support artists during these difficult times AND raise the funds we need to continue our work, but we are hoping it will lead to a slightly more different, and more exciting, selection of artworks being included.

Bidding and the live broadcast itself will all be available per usual on the Invaluable.com platform. The first batch of artworks will be uploaded the first week of April so keep an eye on our socials and this page.

This one is going to be historic….

Meet Andrew

  • I am nearly sixty-five, so have over fifty years of experience making paintings and photographs. 

I started photography and doing my own developing and printing while working in a Merchant Bank in London. It was not for me the commute to the city. Then there were a few years as a welder the money was fantastic, but I escaped to Ireland and after three years in a couple of Art schools I bought Ballyrogan House a ruin with ruined buildings around an impressive yard and a couple of secret gardens.

Attracta visited with some Artists that she knew, to see where this group of Artists were using Ballyrogan as a group of studios and all living together in the dwelling house. A few years passed and Attracta asked me to marry her on February the 29th, an Irish leap-year custom and I said yes, on the next Friday the 13th we were married.

  • So its forty years in the Art Centre at Ballyrogan and just over thirty-six years married. Attracta and I have different approaches to painting: I like to prepare the ground on which to paint, either on Plywood (never MDF) or on canvas, and then generally with Acrylic used in the manner of 17th Century Dutch painters. I also enjoy making grounds or stretching and priming canvas or linen for Attracta to paint on. This fits in well with the Arts and Craft movement started at the time of the Pre-Raphaelites being part of the entire creative process.

  • My inspiration comes from the ‘every day’. Images that I have snapped with the phone, photographed with the big Bronica or even cameras from ‘charity shops, I’m even thinking of using ‘stills’ from Supper Eight films that I shot in Dublin in the 1970s, I  like what I paint to have proof that it existed. I try also to have a metta narrative hidden within the image. An example would be a washing line where the objects drying tells you about the people using the line.

  • A future wish might be to get a grant: first, to be able to pay a curator to select a show to be hung in a set of cities, internationally, of photographs from negatives or slides from the 1970s or 1980s. Or even of the building of the motorway just by us that we passed daily for a couple of years. And secondly to defray the cost of production for what would be a non- commercial show.

  • I find making work after forty years doesn’t get any easier. I am shocked by how wonderful Grand Children are, and that there are so many things that I don’t have time to do.

Andrew-Manson.JPG

The Series ‘ Nature & Nurture’ by Attracta Manson

Graduate of NCAD, Dublin, in Fine Art Painting (2009) and collected by the OPW, Dept of Foreign Affairs, The Central Bank, Arklow Enterprise Centre and many private collectors. 

Attracta’s work has been selected for exhibitions in Dublin, Berlin, Dubai, Brussels, Donegal, Wexford, Galway, and Kilkenny.

Attracta is co-founder of ballyrogan.com having spent many enjoyable years developing an art career surrounded by a creative family and peers. 

Attracta’s work focuses on concepts of identity and explores the painting process using it to distort, transform, interpret and question. Colour and line are densely layered and interconnected in the paintings as the collection develops, as variations on a singular subject, gathering or image. The painting process is a method of addressing the hidden through the application of paint. Using her own photographic images as source material. By using photographic images as references for the paintings ways of translating the world have been explored. Her way of compartmentalizing or framing an image is influenced by her experiences of working in the film industry. 

Manson’s work is influenced on a daily basis by the turmoil of life as we struggle to remain 'in the present'. Systems of living, communicating, or exchange, have become so complex that it takes many teams to support their operations. 

The Series ‘ Nature & Nurture’ explores the current climate change, the presence of viruses in nature and in the human population and the fragility of urban living. (no: 1-3) The indigenous Ash Tree is fighting for its life from an imported virus. Ash in the City explores the idea of urban existence with the trials of poverty and homelessness. Painting 5 explores the impact of Nature on humans and vice versa. 

Attracta painted a mural in Brussels

2008 The Bloom experience, ELIA, Brussels. 

ELIA is a globally connected European network that provides a dynamic platform for professional exchange and development in higher arts education. With over 250 members in 47 countries, it represents some 300.000 students in all arts disciplines. The principal mission of ELIA is to represent Higher Arts Education and to be an influential voice and advocate in promoting the interests of its members. In placing emphasis on the value of arts education and artistic research 

In 2008 ELIA and Hotel Bloom! in Brussels had an international open call for students, graduates and postgraduates from the ELIA member institutions to be selected for a project at the Blooms Hotel in Brussels. ELIA was responsible for the artistic and creative input of this project. The theme of the project is 'Bloom'. Students who have been selected had to create a mural painting according to this theme. 

Bloom! Hotel www.hotelbloom.com as a result now has over 4.100 square meters of wall within the hotel rooms, decorated with mural paintings. 

287 rooms have been designed and painted by 287 students from 22 different European countries. 44 Nationalities are represented. 

I entered, while in my third year at NCAD as a mature student, doing fine Art painting Hons level, I was selected with two of my peers Myra and Blath. The theme they chose from my entry was based on an original oil painting of mine. I had a week to transfer this image to two walls in room 612. It was a very exciting time and there were a group of international artists working alongside us in their various appointed rooms. 

We went on a walkabout through Brussels one afternoon and I visited a flea market. The monochrome photos taken on this excursion have influenced much of my work in later years. I was fascinated by the collections of articles in the stalls and how they were laid out on the cobblestone streets. The atmosphere was engaging and surreal. This was a very special experience for me. 

Incognito 2020

Ballyrogan artists, Andrew, Attracta and Sarah Eva Manson raised €450 for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. Each artist created an original piece of art in a postcard size and donated it to the Incognito campaign. These were then sold at €50 each. 2,791 artworks were created and donated in total by so many wonderful artists. You can see a full list of works and artists on their website.

This year’s Incognito was undoubtedly a MEGA success.  Between Part 1 and Part 2, we raised a staggering total profit of €151,000 which will pay for over 9,000 hours of nursing for the children we look after who so badly need it.   So please take a bow as the standard you submitted was just fantastic.  17 minutes it took for Part 1 to be sold out and 27 minutes for Part 2 to go – a total of 2,791 pictures in all.  Amazing!

 It has to be said that online was the way to go.  Cornered by Covid19, we had no option, but none of us imagined it would be quite the excitement that it was, but it did, to the detriment of some buyers, open up the market worldwide so that we had nearly 15,000 people on the website at the same time.  It looks like online is the way forward, but we’ll see what 2021 brings.

Meet Sarah

Completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, in 2012. During this time Manson took part in workshops in the Netherlands, with the European League of the Institutes of the Arts and was selected to represent Ireland in the Prix Europa, Languages through Lenses video competition on multilingualism. Her short film was awarded 4th place out of fifteen shortlisted entries selected from 27 European Union Member States with her entry 'Choose Wisely'.

Manson's work is in collections such as; AXA Insurance and The Royal College of Surgeons and is housed in numerous private collections.

Sarah Eva's works were selected for the 121st RHA Annual Exhibition in 2011. In November of the same year, she was invited to exhibit in The Cockleshell Gallery, Waterford. There she showed an installation of 52 palimpsest etchings along with a short video piece. Her work was also selected for the travelling Irish Wave exhibition curated by Fionn Gunn, this exhibition travelled to Beijing and Shanghai in 2012.

Manson spent 6years working in the Copper House Gallery, Dublin, where she specialised in exhibition design, planning and production, advanced transparency and negative scanning along with large format scanning as an archival and conservation resource.

Manson is also the curator of Ballyrogan Expression; an artist’s collective and travelling group show.

Originally from Wicklow, Sarah attended the incredible portfolio course in Bray Institute of further education for 1 year because her first submission to NCAD was unsuccessful. She did, however, receive the highest merit from DIT but her stubborn heart was set on NCAD. Sarah was accepted into NCAD the following year after completing a fantastic portfolio to the highest standard spending eight hours a day 7 days a week for 7 months. Determination is an integral part of her personality. When Sarah was in first year her mother, Attracta, was in her final year. They spent many long hours together perfecting their crafts and debating concepts as peers would. Sarah continues to hold a grudge against her mother for getting accepted into NCAD the first time she tried but ultimately is so completely proud of her for following her dreams.

In her final year, she got part of her degree show printed in The Copper House Gallery and worked closely with Maureen and Mark to produce beautiful archival pigment prints mounted to Dibond with a matte laminate and split battens. This brief interaction led to Leszek and Maureen inviting Sarah to undergo an internship. 7 years later Sarah had worked her way up in the business under the expert guidance of Maureen, Lesek and Mark to management alongside Mark and Jacek. They were a small team that worked hard and to perfection, they became a family and remain close today. 

2017 marked a monumental milestone Sarah became a mother to a wonderful baby girl named Böjin. It was then that another huge decision was made to uproot after 10 years in Dublin to relocate with her growing family to her home in Ballyrogan. She now rents an apartment in Ballyrogan with her partner Orgil (Mongolian), her two girls Böjin (2.5yrs) and Arietta (1.5yrs), her two dogs Maybee (rescue Westie cross) and Cooper (rescue Basset Hound cross). Her mom, Attracta, and dad, Andrew, live on-site in the main house. There are also seven other families living in cottages in Ballyrogan. 

Being a family of artists, both parents are amazing painters, spurred her enthusiasm to utilise her knowledge to promote this niche through Ballyrogan Expression. Frequently opening up campaigns to invite artists that have lived or worked on their artistic practices in Ballyrogan to come together to exhibit. Many high profile artists have been through these doors since Andrew bought the site in the 1980s as a ruin. It was built from the ground up by artists and poets and many creative people living on site. The apartment in which Sarah resides was once a hay barn, then a dance studio, a self-catering holiday home, an arts and craft boutique and now a family home.  

Sarah-Eva-Manson-and-Cooper.jpg



SCOOP 2020

€86,500 raised!

This years SCOOP Foundation Annual Art Auction was a huge success. Congratulations to everyone involved.

We as a family of art raised

€440 for the Attracta Manson

€300 for the Sarah Eva Manson

€500 for the Andrew Manson

€1,240 from Ballyrogan Art is going directly to providing PPE to those living in Direct Provision and Nursing Homes here in Ireland.

If you would like to support their PPE drive, please donate on their page here.

Free Portraits for Front Line Workers

Artist Thomas Croft began a hashtag campaign #portraitsfornhsheroes on Instagram in April calling artists and creatives to immortalise and celebrate frontline workers through art by way of painting a free portrait and posting the image online to create an exhibition and community. He had no idea it would get such a huge response. It now has over 8 thousand submissions. 

http://www.thomascroft.co.uk/portraits-for-nhs-heroes/

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/portraitsfornhsheroes/?hl=en  

We got involved as soon as we saw the campaign with huge enthusiasm, opening us the call out to any front line worker anywhere in the world on a first come first served bases. Andrew painted a portrait of Emily Neville-Smith, a London based NHS Front-Line Worker. Sarah's portrait took on a more stylised approach using pen and ink of  - Dr Henna Anwar, West Yorkshire. She said: “Oh my God that's amazing and so quick!!! Wowowowoowow I love it. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's wonderful. So different. Thank you sooooooooo much I got the portrait in the mail!!! It made my day!” Attracta has made an incredible rendition of Mohammad Kamran Shahid an orthopaedic surgeon from The Royal London Hospital.

Some experiences: Andrew Manson Ireland.       

It’s all very strange, being isolated, ‘At Home’ but ‘Not at Home!’ It all starts slowly, politicians dither cases spread from country to country and all of us at home deign to listen with more attention to the news. 

A planned trip to Germany is put on hold as their COVID 19 cases rocket, the UK government advises against unnecessary travel, but the airline still wants to fly us, on a half-empty plane to a country where Hotels, bars and restaurants are already closed. Fortunately, they cancel the flight eight hours before departure so there will be a refund.

In England, travellers from Wuhan or infected cruise ships are taken to ‘Quarantine centres’. 

The days are getting longer and we in our rural Irish area are no longer going out without a proper reason.   Advice about not shaking hands and social distancing are being aired by the Government.  As a health care worker, whose wife is a nurse, we are already wearing gloves and using hand sanitizer, every morning before going out, with a bright yellow ‘essential worker flash’ on the windscreen of the car, I push on with the ‘Snowdrop’ painting, caring for the elderly and shopping for the people in our little group of houses, that are self-quarantined, having returned from Africa, or are sick with some respiratory illness. No sickness developed in one case and the ill persons C-19 results were negative. The old dears I mind, also stayed well, in their own houses, other old dears in the old folks’ homes and a refugee centre a mile away were not so lucky.

Not that the papers nor radio were reporting these cases, but the foreign press referred to them and people were supporting the bereaved, on social media sites. As health workers, we were asked to cover shifts in the old people’s homes, but I was able to cover only visits for my co-workers who were sick, and in the old people’s, own homes.

A fortnight of work home, work; see no one and ‘The big Snowdrop’ painting was finished. It and others, from our collective, had their moment in the sun, and then the National lockdown began: it’s locked in a gallery with the shutters down. My visits to the sick continued, the roads were quiet, but there were a lot more people about than there should have been, cars from the city, and rich folk hiding out in their second homes. None of their big cars had the yellow essential worker flashes on their windscreens. Some co-workers came back to work, I had been going without a break for over a month, it was Thursday my normal day off from caring for those older than I, (I am 64).  A lovely day, one of our children live in the house, next door but one, with their tiny daughters all of us working and playing in the Garden and warmer weather(10c). And I couldn’t get my breath. Partial isolation became total. The test was requested, and three days later the test took place. The lungs hurt and the exercise I was allowed: walking up and down the stairs, gloved and masked got harder and harder. Black jokes about not starting a long painting became the order of the day. Of course, test results take ten days, so like Schopenhauer’s Cat; you have ‘IT’ and don’t have ‘it’ at the same time. I can’t get to the workshop across the yard but there is a rectangle of unused but prepared plywood in the studio, just three steps from the bedroom, in the old building, just past the bathroom, which bathroom has become my own private bathroom, very strange. After a week I sit by the bedroom window, painting, on a ridiculously small hospital bed table; a wet night scene in Arklow, where the busses bash into the crossing lights, it’s our nearest town, and old towns have streets too narrow, for the big busses. 

I have no recollection now, of starting the painting, but I can see it finished now, on the shelf beyond the end of my bed. If I am not out of the woods, but God willing, I can see light through the trees. The lungs aren’t good and the oxygen in the blood is low. Today it was off to the community hub, for a more detailed C19 assessment. Last night the Doctor for the low blood gas, on the phone, said my test was ‘Negative’ but as lung function bad, I had to be seen first thing in the morning. Oh, Joy! And if the blood gas gets worse by one point, during the night, go directly to the hospital. Reassuring or what? At 9.05 the mobile phone rang, come to Town to be assessed by 10.30! My Wife the Nurse said: “Pack a bag in case you don’t come back! I think she meant ‘In case they keep you in!’  

Lines on the floor, their side and mine, all equipment that touches me, is then put on what they call the ‘contaminated’ shelf of the stainless steel trolley. “My ‘Test result just came back negative!” I put to the suitably gowned and masked Lady Irish Doctor. “Yes.. but you have it! Fourteen more days in self-isolation!” She tells me. At least I’m going home.

by Andrew Manson April 2020

Front line worker by Andrew Manson

Front line worker by Andrew Manson

Front line worker and her family by Sarah Eva Manson

Front line worker and her family by Sarah Eva Manson

Mohammad Kamran Shahid an orthopaedic surgeon from The Royal London Hospital by Attracta Manson

Mohammad Kamran Shahid an orthopaedic surgeon from The Royal London Hospital by Attracta Manson

SCOOP Art Auction 2020 – Online Version

Andrew, Attracta and Sarah have proudly donated artworks to this charity from it's beginning. We are so proud of what SCOOP have grown into and have achieved thus far. Every year this auction gets bigger and better. Congratulations to all involved and may this be the best year yet!

Irish Dawn by Andrew Mansonacrylic on ply43 x 33 cm

Irish Dawn by Andrew Manson

acrylic on ply

43 x 33 cm

Illustrated Line 2 by Attracta Mansonoil on canvas board36 x 41 cm

Illustrated Line 2 by Attracta Manson

oil on canvas board

36 x 41 cm

Galaxy 24 by Sarah Eva Mansonwatercolour8 x 10 inches

Galaxy 24 by Sarah Eva Manson

watercolour

8 x 10 inches

A note from SCOOP

We are beyond excited to host our annual Art AUCTION on 23rd and 24th of May 2020, this time fully online from our home to yours.

The show must go on!

This year (by the power of technology) we are going live and online!

Thanks to the overwhelming response from artists, this year’s Auction promises to be bigger and better than ever. From Street to Fine art – there’s something to tickle everyone’s fancy. The FULL LIST OF ARTISTS is at the bottom of this page.

As our biggest fundraiser, the Art Auction allows us continue our work supporting children and young people out of poverty here in Ireland and internationally. Our StreetSmart campaign continues to support young people out of homelessness with some big plans to be announced towards the end of the year. SCOOPiT, alongside our Art and psycho-social programmes will continue to reach hundreds of displaced children and young people in Iraq & Syria and we will continue to support the current emergency at home creating and delivering PPE supplies nationally to children and families in Direct Provision, to older people and frontline staff in Nursing Homes and Dublin hospitals.

This year, recognising the long-term impact of Covid 19 on the creative sector including those artists who have supported SCOOP so generously over the past 10 years, we’re allocating funds to establish The SCOOP Artist Studio to provide a working space for young, emerging Irish artists.

As for the Auction, Here’s how it works – check out the artworks online, bid on your phone, tablet or laptop/PC, magically the art appears (socially distanced) at your front door!

All artworks will be presented on our Facebook page in the coming days along with details of how to bid (hosted by the online auction website www.invaluable.com) so keep your peepers on it!

We never thought we would say this – ‘It’s time to Do Some Good by NOT going out’!

Participating artists (in alphabetical order):

ACHES, Adrian Michael Mulryan, Adrienne M. Finnerty, ADW, Aidan Butler, Aidan Kelly, Aileen Murphy, Aisling Curry, Alison Bentley, Andrew Manson, Anita Groener, Ann Quinn, Ann Marie Webb, Annie Atkins, ASBESTOS, Atmos Atmos, Attracta Manson, Audrey Hamilton, Avril McDermott, Barbara Knezevic, Barbara McCarthy, Barry Delaney, Brian Giles aka Sonofafox.

Caitlyn Rooke, Carol Hodder, Carolyn Walsh, Christine de Paor, Claire Prouvost, Colm MacAthlaoich, Conor Bereen, Conor Merriman, Cormac O’Leary, DANLEO, David Cleary, David Magnier, David Smith, Debbie Chapman, Dominic Turner, DECOY, Deirdre Breen, DUDA, Eileen Ferguson, Emma O’Hara, Emmalene Blake aka ESTR, Esther Moliné, Ewan McClure, EL VIZ, Fares Fares, FINK, Felix Zaska, Frances Ryan, Frank O’Dea, George Warren,  Gillian Lawlor, Gintare Venckute, George Warren, Hazel Coonagh, Helen Steel, Henry McGrane, Holly Pereira, Hugh Cooney.

Jackie Hudson Lawlor, James Kirwan, Jane Hilliard, Janet Murrann, Jeremiah O’Dea, Jessica Tobin, Jessie Presley Jones, Jill & Gill, Jim Fitzpatrick, Jo Cummins, Joby Hickey, John Nolan, Johnny Fitzsimons, Juliana Scodeler, Katarzyna Gajewska, Kate Beagan, Kevin Bohan, Kevin Sharkey, KURB JUNKI, Leah Beggs, Leah Hewson, Linda Brownlee, Lola Donoghue, Lorcan Finnegan, Lorna Watkins, Louise Butler, Louise Donnelly.

Mags Duffy, Malcolm McGettigan, Margaret Harkin, Mark Duggan, Martin McCann, Martina Furlong, Marty Cullen, MASER, Mercedes Helnwein, Michael McSwiney, Michael Rainsford, MORGAN, Myneandyours, Neal Greig, Neil Condron, Neil Dunne, Neil J. Smyth, Niall Stains, Niall Sweeney, Niall Toolin, Orla Mellon, Orla Walsh, Orlagh M. Murphy, Padraig McCaul, Patrick Walshe, Paul ‘Poncho’ Byrne, Paul Hallahan, Paul Tuthill, Peter Bradley, Peter Doyle, Peter McMahon aka Peter Pure Art, PHATS, Phelim Donfield.

Rachel Ballagh, Richard Hearns, Richie Gilligan, Robert O’Brien, Rohan Reilly, Ronan Dillon, Ronan McGeough, Ruth Medjber, Ruth Power-Branfield, Sahoko Blake, Salvatore of Lucan, Sarah Doyle, Shane O’Driscoll, Shane O’Malley, Shane Sutton, Sharon McDaid, Sinead Bailey – Kelly, Sinead Smyth, SOLUS, Stephen Burke, Steve O’Connor, Subset, SUMS, Tag Beckett, Tim Goulding, Thelma Mansfield, Vanessa Power aka Signs of Power & Vittoria Collona.

The launch of our new paintings and then the pandemic hit

On March 12th 2020 we had the pleasure of launching a new body of work by Andrew, Attracta and Sarah Eva Manson. That same day our Taoiseach announced new measures to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Therefore we closed the door on our much anticipated exhibition the very same day it launched.

It is still on the walls of the gallery four and a half weeks later. The doors never opened again, no visitors came through, and the lock-down is due to continue for another three weeks.

We are truly grateful for everyone who has showed their continued support. And to Pauline Merry for opening the exhibition.

Your support in the midst of this uncertain time would really be appreciated. A virtual exhibition has been put together for those that would have liked to have visited.

Please email info@ballyrogan.com to receive your personal rendition of our virtual exhibition.

SCOOP Art Auction 2019

Andrew, Attracta and Sarah Eva have donated works of art to this incredible cause. We’ve supported this charity, The SCOOP Foundation / Syrias Vibes, for many years and this year is especially powerful as our Sarah Eva has become a Mommy Bear x2! So of course we sprung into action to help support their efforts to build a maternity clinic in Syria - save the children :) <3

SCOOP Art Auction 2019 - 28th April 2019 1pm in The Iveagh Garden Hotel.

Direct link to Sarah Eva Manson’s piece: here

Direct link to Andrew’s piece: here

Direct link to Attracta’s piece: here

They will be streaming the auction live online also, available at this link

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In June 2019 SCOOP will officially turn 10! And what better way to celebrate than to run a contemporary art auction of 100+ artworks in order to build a maternity clinic in Syria :)

We are dedicating the event and project to our (Calvin and Andy’s) Mum - Gaye Sweeney - who was a lifelong nurse and who also came up with the acronym / name SCOOP (which originally stood for Saving Children Out Of Poverty). Mum sadly passed away in November 2011 from cancer but her altruistic nature and love of music / good times lives on in us and in SCOOP.

This one is for the Mammies....

So it’s quite fitting that this is going to be our biggest event to date! It will stretch over 3 venues in fact, with a selection of artworks on show in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre throughout the month of April.

Then we have our official LAUNCH PARTY with the remaining 90+ artworks on show on Wednesday the 24th of April in The Copper House Gallery on Synge St just off Camden St in Dublin, kicking off at 6pm sharp.

The exhibition then runs for the Thursday the 25th and Friday the 26th of April.

Then Sunday the 28th of April is Auction Day! Taking place in the wonderful Iveagh Garden Hotel the live auction starts 2pm sharp with registration available from 1pm. Online bidding will also be available with Invaluable.com by searching Syrias Vibes on their website. Early registration is advised to avoid disappointment as bidders will all need to be approved.

We would like to thank our good friends at Miller Brothers Stone for sponsoring the events.

The list of artists is absolutely mind blowing too. Here they all are in alphabetical order:

Adrienne M. Finnerty, Contemporary Artist, Aidan Butler, Áine Macken, Alice Maher, Anita Groener, Andrew Manson, Annemarie Webb, Attracta Manson, Barbara Knezevic, Ben Readman, Bennie Reilly, Brian Ballard, Brian Cregan, Brian Gallagher Art-illustration, Brian Maguire, Brid Higgins Ni Chinneide, Catherine Bannon, Cian McLoughlin, Conor Bereen, Conor Tiernan, Daniela Astone, Dave McDermott, David Magnier, Debbie Chapman, DECOY, Denise Nestor, Dominic Turner....

DUDA, Eamon Colman, Eileen Ferguson, Emma Finucane, Emma Spence, Emma Stroude, Eoin McCormack, Esther Moliné, Felix Zaska, Francis Matthews, Gemma Best, Gintare Venckute, Guggi, Gwen O’Dowd, Hazel Coonagh, Heidi Wickham, Helen O'Higgins Design, Jackie Hudon Lalor, James Kirwan, Jesse Presley Jones, Jim Fitzpatrick, Jo Cummins, Joby Hickey, John Nolan, Juliana Scodeler, Katarzyna Gajewska, Kate Beagan, Kevin Godley...

Leah Hewson, Leo deFreyne, Leonora Neary, Lili Heller, LolaDonoghue, Louise Donnelly, Margo Banks, Mark Baker, Martin Redmond, Martina Flynn, Martina Furlong, Mary de Blacam, MASER ART, MONK, Morgan Art, Neal Grieg, Neil J Smyth, Niamh O’Connor, Niamh O’Malley, Padraig McCaul, Paul ‘Poncho’ Byrne, Peter Bradley, Peter Doyle, Peter McMahon, Petra Berntsson, Rachel Fallon, Ramon Kassam, Richard Hearns, Richard Seabrooke, Robert Mirolo, Robert O'Broin, Ronan McGeough...

Sahoko Blake, Salvatore of Lucan, Sarah Eva Manson, Sarah Rossney, Séan & Yvette, Shane O’Driscoll, Shane O’Malley, Shane Sutton, Sinead Smyth, Steve McCarthy, Steve O’Connor, SUBSET, SUMS, Tag beckett art work, Tim Goulding. Tinka Bechert, Tom Byrne, Vanessa Power, Will O’Kane, William Grace.

syriavibes@gmail.com

www.syriasvibes.com

info@ballyrogan.com

www.ballyrogan.com