Personal stories are on display at the 1428 Club art exhibition

It’s amazing what you can do when a curtain and blinds company agrees to donate old pattern books and fabric samples to you, members of Mullingar’s 1428 Club have demonstrated.

At The Atrium in the Westmeath County Council offices, club members have an exhibition that shows the use they made of the materials donated by Dunne and Nugent, of Lough Sheever Business Park.

Olive Power, who is project worker at the club – an active retirement group that is based in Bishopsgate Street in Mullingar – reveals that they were thrilled to get the items donated.

Out of them, 30 members created 50 squares of artwork, each measuring 30x30cm, which form a major part of the exhibition, which is on display until July 12.

“This was done for the Festival of Creative Art for Older people,” says Olive.
“The challenge was to produce square pieces of art work, and people really used their imagination,” she says, adding that before embarking on the project and deciding on the type of project Mullingar would like to engage in, members examined the types of projects that have been done by other groups in similar challenges.

“But what we came up with was specific to the 1428 Club,” says Olive.
Applique, sewing, cross-stitch, embroidery, knitting, crochet, and in some works, a mixture of methods, were used to create the pieces.
“Each piece was important to the person who made it.

For example, one lady used some left-over material from making a First Communion dress, and decorated it with buttons and bows.
“We also have a Mayo woman in the group, and her piece was knit in the Mayo colours. Then one woman made hers with her granddaughter.

“Home and garden feature strongly, because these are among the things that are important to people, and we invite people to come to The Atrium and see them.”

Also on display were a selection of paintings by members of the art classes run through the 1428 Club, and club staff member, Debbie Daly, told the gathering at The Atrium that the club is a busy place, five days a week, frequented by members of Mullingar’s active retired community.

“We do everything from the simple and sedate to the more energetic activities,” she said. The wall-hangings on display were, she said, the fruits of several weeks’ work by the members.

“All of this has been done on zero budget, simply because we don’t have the funds to put in it: we get no non-wage funding,” she said, going on to praise Dunne and Nugent for their help.

Debbie revealed that during the exercise, a “core group” emerged, who were retired seamstresses and machinists, and they were the people who took on the extra work involved in finishing the pieces.

“This is a showcase for the 1428 Club and it shows what any community group can do on a zero budget. If we can do it, so can you.”

A benefit of the challenge had been, Debbie added, that many people had made new friends through it.

Officially opening the display, Cllr Johnny Penrose, cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council, said the art on display was a true measure of the talent each of the participants possessed, and which might not have been discovered were it not for their participation in the 1428 Club.

“I want to commend the work of the 1428 Active Retirement Club which has been serving the actively retired of Mullingar and surrounding areas since 1998,” he said.

“The variety of activities which they organise, from computer classes to coffee mornings and indeed arts classes, is to be admired.

“I am aware that the club also operates as a drop-in for actively retired people who may just want the cuppa with a friendly chat, or to do a bit of reading in their library, or a bit of advice on how to apply for that home adaptation grant.”

He joked: “With my term as Cathaoirleach nearing its end, who knows: I might shortly have time for dropping in!”