Image 1: Sacred group meal  Image 2: Tour & talk  Image 3 & 4: Exhibition installation view

The Sacred project is a community based art project bringing together members of communities from Carrick-on-Shannon & Enniskillen. The project is proposed to use the medium of creating an exhibition as a tool to initiate conversations around notions of “Sacred”, “Divinity”, “Spirituality” by discussing the shared, experiential aspects of religions as opposed to focusing on their differences.

By using the “Art Exhibition” as a platform for finding a commonality of interests in the groups, it is hoped this project will provide all who attend with the rare opportunity of experiencing and discussing spirituality and sacredness in unfamiliar terms. The creation of an exhibition will ultimately be informed by group discussions, visits to art institutions and possibly talks from key figures in the theological / curating field.

The Sacred project is initiated as a partnership between the County Leitrim & Fermanagh Arts Offices and is funded under the Peace III Programme.

Featuring the work of :

Janine Antoni

Karl Burke

John Byrne

Maud Cotter

Gary Coyle

Miriam De Búrca

Stephen Dillon

Cian Donnelly

Patricia Kelly

Sharon Kelly

Susan MacWilliam

Fergus Martin

Janet Mullarney

Mariele Neudecker

Abigail O’Brien

Paul Seawright

Amelia Stein

Grace Weir

Daphne Wright

The Sacred exhibition is a multi venue off-site project initiated by The Dock in partnership with Fermanagh District Council and is a cross border community art project where members of communities from Enniskillen Co. Fermanagh and Carrick-on-Shannon Co. Leitrim met with artists, curators and heads of collections to discuss the Sacred in contemporary art.

The Sacred Project proposed to use the medium of creating an exhibition as a tool to initiate conversations around notions of Sacred, Divinity and Spirituality by discussing the shared, experiential aspects of religions as opposed to focusing on their differences. By using the Art Exhibition as a platform for finding a commonality of interests in the groups, this project provided all who attended with the rare opportunity of experiencing and discussing spirituality and sacredness in unfamiliar terms.

The exhibition is made up of significant works from several artists including Prayer Project by Daphne Wright. Prayer Project was commissioned by Picture This, Bristol in 2009 and we were delighted to bring this major 6 screen film installation here for it’s Irish debut.

Works for this exhibition were kindly loaned by:

Irish Museum of Modern Art

Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Picture This

Frith Street Gallery

Collection of Loewe Contemporary

Galerie Barbara Thumm

The Green on Red Gallery

Clíodhna Shaffrey & Kevin Kavanagh Gallery