ARK 1x1 launches in Cavan

From mid September 2013, ARK 1x1, an exhibition comprising 13 pictures chosen from The Ark’s collection (and including loans from The Arts Council’s collection) will tour around 12 National schools in County Cavan throughout the academic year. The exhibition is centred on the theme of ‘ark’, and each picture will hang for 3 weeks in each school on a rotated basis, until all the pictures have been viewed over the academic year.

The idea for ARK 1 x 1 arose from discussions with the exhibition's curator Jobst Graeve around the challenge to utilise The Ark’s visual art collection in a more effective way. Jobst had for some time been exercised with the idea of slow learning/gradual absorption in a world of exponential growth in the volume and pace of visual exposures, especially for children.

ARK 1 x 1 is a unique experiment to allow children to view artworks on a very gradual basis. It is believed that the participating children will develop a profound knowledge of the works individually and collectively. The potentially transformative nature of this approach will endow the children with a visual awareness and a visual confidence which will hopefully endure.

The exhibition will be supported with a teachers’ pack which will help teachers to stimulate response from the pupils without directing that response. Each child will receive a journal in which they can record their response to the unfolding exhibition. Parents and the wider community will be encouraged to participate as fully as possible.

For the month of June 2014 the full exhibition will be mounted in the Cavan County Library where the children will see all the pictures together for the first time. The Ark will conduct an in-depth evaluation of the project so as to inform future application of the 1 x 1 approach. Upwards of 3,000 children will avail of the exhibition plus their parents and the wider community and over 40 teachers.

ARK 1x1 was made possible through the support of Cavan County Council and The Arts Council.