Once Upon a Picture (March - May 2015) featured work by artists Stephen Brandes, Aoibheann Greenan, Michal Iwanowski, Dragana Jurisic, Sam Keogh, Clare Langan, Alice Maher, Caroline McCarthy and Beth O’Halloran. The exhibition and six-week artist-led workshop programme (a collaboration with with Visual Art Programmer Aideen Lynch) were thematically centred around fairy-tale and story-making - an underlying aim being the exploration of narrative through image and text. This included artist-led workshop 'The Art of Fantastical Flavours' with Stephen Brandes where he drew upon his work with the art-food collective 'The Domestic Godless' to conceptually illustrate how perception can be altered through story-telling. The programme also involved a series of facilitated conversations where artist-facilitators invited children to express and discuss their personal responses to the artworks in an approach that aimed to encourage open enquiry, prolonged looking and visual literacy.

Untitled (Bananaskin), 2013, Sam Keogh

Becks Fusions, 2007, Clare Langan.
Also exhibited was Propeller, 1999 by Langan - a work commissioned by The Ark and part of its collection.

Artist-facilitator Claire Halpin discusses with school group the Stephen Brandes work Les Grands Mulets, 2008.

'The Art of Fantastical Flavours' workshop with Stephen Brandes.
For more information click on image.

Left - The Luncheon, 2002, Caroline McCarthy; Middle - Les Grands Mulets, 2008, Stephen Brandes; Right - Coma Berenice ii, 1999, Alice Maher

Sylvan setting series, 2015, Beth O'Halloran

Left - Centaurius (big fish), Alice Maher, 2006; Right - Dreaming of..., 2009, Dragana Jurisic

Right - LotusEaters series (puffin), LotusEaters series (staff), 2013, Aoibheann Greenan; Left - The Luncheon, 2002, Caroline McCarthy. This work was on loan from IMMA and is part of its permanent collection.

Watching Gina, 2009, Michal Iwanoski

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The Ark Children's Cultural Centre is in Temple Bar, Dublin: www.ark.ie