'We really are in a celebratory mood': STAC marks 30 years of arts in Clonmel
Alice Maher and Catherine Marshall at the opening of STAC at 30. Picture: John D Kelly
The former bus station on Nelson Street, Clonmel, may have seemed an unusual location for South Tipperary Arts Centre when it first opened its doors in April 1996. But it had its advantages, apparently.
“It was a public building that people had been using since the 1940s, so it had that going for it,” says Catherine Marshall, a long-time member of the STAC board.
The centre enjoyed a great run for the first 12 years of its existence, up until the crash of 2008. “But then, around that time, STAC lost its Arts Council support and was almost wiped out. There was no staff, a big-ish debt, and no funding whatsoever.
"Thankfully, the local community came on board. They ran it for six years, with a programme of local and amateur exhibitions, and put it back in the black, as a going concern with no debts.”
Eventually, the centre could afford to hire professional staff again, with Helena Tobin being appointed director in 2019. “As soon as we got the staff in place,” says Marshall, “the Arts Council came back on board, and began giving us project funding.”
STAC has recently taken possession of a chapel building at the former military barracks nearby, where it will run ancillary events.
“That's in the process of renovation at the moment. It's not yet in a state to hang artwork in it, but it will be. So we’re expanding, and now the Arts Council has this year announced that they intend giving us more long-term funding once more.
"It’s been a hard 30 years, but the centre has gone from strength to strength, so we really are in a very celebratory mood now.”
To mark its 30th anniversary, Marshall has curated a new exhibition called STAC at 30. She chose the artists featured on the basis of their association with Co Tipperary, but also because “their works are all on loan from important national collections, like IMMA and the Arts Council, or in one instance, from one of the oldest public collections in the country, the Limerick City Collection.
"So the exhibition pulls in eight really strong artists, but it also connects STAC to these institutions. It's a real sign of confidence that they're all happy to entrust very high quality artwork to a place like Clonmel and to Helena and her team at STAC.”
One of those featured is the late John Burke, a native of Clonmel who moved to Cork in the late 1960s to study at the Crawford College of Art and Design.
He established himself as a prominent sculptor, as well as becoming one of the college’s most influential tutors, teaching the likes of Dorothy Cross, Vivienne Roche and Eilís O’Connell, all of whom have gone on to international careers.
“I’m so proud to have John in the show,” says Marshall. “One of the things I did when I got involved in STAC was to curate an exhibition of his work to remind Clonmel of this hero of the visual arts.”
Another of Burke’s students was Alice Maher, from the townland of Kilmoyler, just 20 miles from Clonmel.
“Alice was chosen to take part in the Venice Biennale this year. We have some of her drawings for the exhibition, along with some large photographs of her working on a self-portrait. She often uses her own hair as the main motif in her drawings. They are extraordinary.”
Aideen Barry is another international name. “Aideen has worked all over the world,” says Marshall. “She's from Cork, but she lives in the Silvermines in Tipperary. We have five of her drawings in the show.
"They’re images of very ordinary everyday objects that you'd find in any domestic kitchen. But they have something really very scary going on in them. If you look closely, you’ll see a metal fork jammed into an electric toaster. You know that’s not going to end well. It's showing how explosive the most absolutely banal, boring domestic situations can be.”
Also featured in the show are Austin McQuinn, Sheenagh Geoghegan, Bridget O’Gorman, Patricia Hurl and Ursula Burke.
“They're all heavy-hitting artists, with an edge that is quite intellectually demanding, but at the same time, you don't have to be a genius to get what's going on in their work. You take a look at Aideen Barry's fork in the toaster, and you know.”
Marshall agrees that STAC’s 30th anniversary is as good a time as any to reflect on the role the centre plays in the local community.
“There’s a little theme running alongside this exhibition and the other exhibitions that will run for the rest of this year at STAC,” she says.
“There's an underlying question that Helena has posed, and that is, what is an art centre for, anyway?
“STAC has a big social commitment, as I think every art centre should. But the primary object is to encourage artists to make art to the best of their ability, and the centre will then, if you like, mediate the position of the artist with the local community.
"They're the bridge in the middle. They make it work for the local community. And that's what they should be doing.
"That's what we need to be demanding of them. The more we demand, the more we get out of them.”
- STAC at 30 runs at South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel until June 20. Further information: southtippartscentre.ie
