Art in the park!

A Cork city art studio will present an exhibition exploring the profession of art therapy in Fitzgerald’s Park tomorrow, Thursday.

Sample-Studios in Churchfield has teamed up with MTU Crawford College of Art and Design to create the exhibition, marking the college’s 30th Annual Art Therapy Summer School.

‘Sailing the Rip Tide’ explores art therapists’ own relationship with artmaking and art therapy, as well as the trajectory of the profession itself.

The exhibition reflects how the artists have been impacted by and responded to the experience of the pandemic, as well as how they have grown, facilitated growth and created meaning in relation to this experience as art therapists.

This partnership, which examines visual arts practice through an arts therapeutic lens, is a new iteration of a long established and successful partnership between Sample-Studios, one of Ireland’s largest artist studios, and MTU Crawford College of Art and Design.

Speaking in the build-up to the event, Art Therapist and Lecturer on MTU Crawford’s MA in Art Therapy, Marianne Adams said: “We believe that art is the alchemical vessel at the heart of the therapeutic relationship and aim to honour this belief through this collaboration, exploring and celebrating the role of the artist and art therapist in a time when the need for individual, collective and global healing is palpable, and the demand for art therapy has never been greater.”

Additionally, Sample-Studios will present a pop-up exhibition of watercolours by Ukrainian artist Tetiana Milshyna.

Tetiana fled her home in Ukraine bringing with her over 200 of her watercolours and has recently come to live in Cork city.

The exhibitions open on 30 June and will run throughout the month of July.

The launch reception of the exhibitions will take place on 4 July from 4.30-6.30pm in The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion in Fitzgerald’s Park to mark the conclusion of the 30th Annual Art Therapy Summer School.