The Art Hive at Blackrock Park

The Blackrock Park Art Hive is located in Blackrock, County Louth. Blackrock is a traditional seaside village on the east coast of Ireland.

Blackrock Park is a community crafted park, designed and cultivated by hundreds of adults and children who live nearby the park. The gardens in the park are biodiversity and pollinator friendly. There is a forest garden (with edible wild foods), a medieval garden, a Celtic garden, an intergenerational flower garden, a wildflower garden, and a composting education area. These gardens also showcase the artistic and horticultural talents of environmental volunteers and local school children. Three local primary schools have created nature habitats in the park accompanied by pubic celebrations including music, dance, poetry, wild foods, and environmental education.

During the summer of 2018, The Art Hive will generate outdoor studios for adults and children who will work with natural park materials to make art accompanied by creative writing, spoken word performances and installations within the park environment.

An Tain Arts Centre (Dundalk, County Louth) is a partner of the Art Hive outdoor studio. An Tain families will learn about gardening as an environmental art, creating art with nature, and working within outdoor studios. The goal is to also encourage families to link walks with the foraging of art materials. Ultimately these found and foraged materials will compose the home studio, where each family member contributes their art to the home environment. Working as an artist collective, families will designate a space in their home for the artful exploration of the natural world, their locality, and what is found along the walking routes of their travels together.