Local Schools Winners in National Gallery of Ireland Yeats Competition

The National Gallery of Ireland is delighted to announce that schools in Westmeath, Kerry, Donegal, Sligo, Limerick, Belfast and Dublin are winners in the National Gallery of Ireland’s Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory Schools Competition. Schools in Dublin, Tipperary and Waterford are also highly commended for their entries. Eight winning schools will each receive an exciting prize package worth €1000. The competition was supported by Key Capital.

To celebrate its landmark exhibition Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory, the National Gallery of Ireland devised this art competition for primary and post-primary schools on the island of Ireland. Championing the diverse communities of Ireland, it offered schools the opportunity to engage more deeply with the themes of place and memory in the work of iconic Irish artist Jack B. Yeats. Schools were invited to work as a team to create a collaborative artwork inspired by the memories of people in their local area. Each school could choose to create their artwork in any form. The finished artwork was photographed and submitted digitally to the Gallery for judging. 

Competition results

Primary-school category: winning schools

School: St Fintan’s NS, Lismacaffrey, County Westmeath
Title of Artwork: ‘Shining Light’ on our Memories of our Locality and its People.

School: Scoil Eoin, Tralee, Co. Kerry
Title of Artwork:  Our Community Remembers the Rose of Tralee

School: SN Éadan Fhionnfhraoich /Edeninfagh NS, Glenties, Co Donegal
Title of Artwork: “Doors – Portals of Transportation, Memories and Time”

School: Ballinlig NS, Skreen, Co Sligo
Title of Artwork:  Our Magical Memories of Beautiful Beltra

Primary-school category: highly commended schools

School: Scoil Maelruain Senior, Tallaght, Dublin 24
Title of Artwork:  Memories in the Landscape

School: Killurney NS, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Title of Artwork:  The Flowers of Killurney

Post-primary category: winning schools

School: John the Baptist Community School, Hospital, Co. Limerick
Title of Artwork: Illuminated Memory Bubbles

School: Colaiste Muire, Ballymote, Co. Sligo
Title of Artwork: Ballymote Treasures

School: St Louise’s Comprehensive College, Belfast
Title of Artwork: Local Beauty

School: St Joseph's Secondary School, Rush, Co. Dublin
Title of Artwork: Community and Identity in Rush

Post-primary category: highly commended schools

School: De La Salle College, Waterford
Title of Artwork: 'We live protected under each other’s shadow' ode to Joe Caslin…’Rylan’…Waterford’s very own ‘Christ the Redeemer’.

School: St Benildus College, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin
Title of Artwork: Journeying

The Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory Schools Competition is inspired by the Gallery’s current exhibition Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory. This, the largest exhibition of Yeats’s oil paintings in 50 years, is on view in the National Gallery of Ireland until 6 February 2022. The exhibition provides a once in a generation opportunity to see some of Yeats’s most important paintings and explores the role of memory in Jack B. Yeats’s life and how it influenced his work. From his earliest forays into oil painting, Yeats was unusually reliant on memory and retrospection. Memories of childhood in Sligo inspired many of his works, and particular motifs – music and horses prominent among them – recur in his paintings. In this selection of 84 oil paintings spanning more than 40 years, Gallery visitors can view places and people Yeats remembered, his observations of humanity, and reflections on life and loss in his later years.

For further details, please visit www.nationalgallery.ie.

About the National Gallery of Ireland:

The National Gallery of Ireland is one of the country’s most popular visitor attractions housing the nation’s collection of European and Irish art from about 1300 to the present day, and an extensive Library & Archive. Entry to the collection is free for all to enjoy, learn and be inspired. Find out more at www.nationalgallery.ie

About Key Capital:

Key Capital is a full service Corporate Finance and Wealth and Investment advisory firm that was founded in 2001. Its association with the National Gallery of Ireland goes back to its earliest days and this marks Key Capital’s third sponsorship of a major exhibition; the previous two being A Time and a Place in 2006, and Leonardo da Vinci: Ten Drawings from the Royal Collection in 2016. Key Capital continues to place emphasis on the role business has in supporting arts and culture in our community.