Life Memory Art Exhibition

An arts project entitled Cuimhne an tSaoil (Life Memory) saw students, patients and staff create a permanent art exhibition at Clonakilty Community Hospital earlier this year.

For more than four months, Sarah Dobbs, Project Designer, Facilitator, and Artist, worked with ten students, a nurse, a nurse’s aide and six patients at Clonakilty Community Hospital in west Cork.

For two-and-a-half hours each week, the varied group met and worked together. Initial signs of reservation soon gave way to easy conversations and friendships began forming.

Through interviews, collaborative artworks and writing, students and patients were able to bridge the age gap. Ranging from 65 to 92 years of age, patients recalled their life stories for the students. These memories were reflected in artwork and a book containing the stories has become the project’s legacy.

The project culminated in a permanent art exhibition and presentation of the books and certificates to all who participated.  The whole group benefited greatly from the project: the students learned from the patients’ stories and gained a wider insight into the world, hospital staff deepened their understanding and empathy towards patients, and partnerships were formed with the school, patients and their families. Preconceived notions of age and cultural barriers were broken down.

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