Colourful primary school sculpture project at Fane Valley head office

Fane Valley have teamed up with three local schools in the Moira, Antrim and Crumlin area in association with arts partner Arts & Business NI to deliver a series of colourful farm animal sculptures made with recycled material to decorate the grounds of their head office at Glenavy during the summer months.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Jun 2019, 08:23 BST
Trevor Lockhart, chief executive, Fane Valley, with Jenny Elliot, chief executive, Arts Care, Maeve McKervey, business manager, Arts & Business NI, and artists Clare McComish and Beth McComish and teachers and pupils from Moira Primary School and St Joseph’s, CrumlinTrevor Lockhart, chief executive, Fane Valley, with Jenny Elliot, chief executive, Arts Care, Maeve McKervey, business manager, Arts & Business NI, and artists Clare McComish and Beth McComish and teachers and pupils from Moira Primary School and St Joseph’s, Crumlin
Trevor Lockhart, chief executive, Fane Valley, with Jenny Elliot, chief executive, Arts Care, Maeve McKervey, business manager, Arts & Business NI, and artists Clare McComish and Beth McComish and teachers and pupils from Moira Primary School and St Joseph’s, Crumlin

This is part of their creative ‘Reach Out’ project designed to communicate to the local schools within the catchment area of their new head office location in Glenavy.

Fane Valley teamed up with Arts & Business NI and Arts Care to engage with primary school pupils, by commissioning Clare McComish, artist in residence, to work with the pupils to create a series of large farm animal sculptures, using willow and recycled waste from Fane Valley.

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Speaking at the official opening, Trevor Lockhart, Fane Valley, chief executive said: “We are excited to see the new recyclable sculptures designed by the local primary schools, which will be taking pride of place at Fane Valley head office.

“We wanted to use the space within and around the carpark as an exhibition area to showcase the art from the three schools. This is the second colourful arts engagement with schools in our catchment area.”

Trevor continued: “Our vision, through the arts, is to effectively communicate who Fane Valley is, what we do and where we came from. The brief also included giving the pupils an insight into farming and agriculture, but in a colourful and artistic way.

“Through both our secondary school calendar project and our primary school sculpture project, I believe we have achieved this and we will endeavour to continue to use the arts to explore new ways to reach out to the local community in which we operate.”

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Maeve McKervey, Business Manager Arts & Business NI remarked: “Arts & Business NI were delighted to introduce Fane Valley to Arts Care to deliver an innovative engagement initiative with local schools.

“The creative project included designing an agri themed Fane Valley calendar and more recently the creation of a fabulous sculpture trail at Fane Valley’s head office with Arts Care artist Clare McComish.

“It is amazing to see the impact of the partnership between Fane Valley and Arts Care within the local community and we look forward to seeing how this successful collaboration develops.”

Jenny Elliott, Arts Care CEO/artistic director, said: “Arts Care is thrilled to be part of this exciting schools sculpture project with Fane Valley and Arts & BusinessNI.

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“For me the project success was the schoolchildren from different schools creating these large-scale animal sculptures, and in the process, learning about how a local business and farming is contributing so positively to their lives.”

Related topics:Antrim