College hosts exhibition exploring notions of identity

MARGARET Aylward Community College in Whitehall  hosted a pop-up Museum of Identity last week featuring video installations, craft pieces, and poetic work that explored notions of identity and unearthed and celebrated young people’s creativity. 

Inspired by exhibitions and objects at the National Museum of Ireland, a diverse group of over 60 transition year students from Margaret Aylward Community College, Whitehall, New Cross College, Finglas and Colaiste Mhuire in Cabra West brought the voices, ideas, and experiences of identity of young people from Dublin North West 2017 together under one roof. 

Axis: Ballymun, the project managers of Dublin’s Cultural Connect: The National Neighbourhood Press Play on behalf of Dublin City Council, invited students to participate in an identity workshop.  

Students investigated their personal identities while working with lead artist Veronica Dyas and curators from the National Museum of Ireland.   

Working over a number of weeks through walking tours of their areas and identifying places of importance in their lives, the students were asked to think about objects that signify their identity, whatever that might be. That work went into the creation of sculpture, poetic work, and craft pieces displayed in the School of Identity Museum.  

As part of the project, 25 transition year students, from Margaret Aylward Community College, worked with fashion designer Alison Conneely over two workshops, facilitated by Sarah Purcell librarian, in the college. 

The ‘mini’ project also included a tour of the National Museum of Ireland’s The Shuttle Hive: A Century of Rising Threads. Each student weaved a mini tapestry as an entry point into the design workshops which followed.

The museum and exhibition was curated by artists John Conway and Rhona Byrne.