Evening Echo, February 2024
A CORK artist created a lightning-fast portrait of a German MEP who visited Crawford Supported Studios in Cork City yesterday.
MEP Katrin Langensiepen was on a fact-finding mission to Cork, arranged by Ireland South MEP Grace O’Sullivan, to get an overview of inclusivity in Ireland and to visit projects that uphold the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The two MEPs visited Crawford Supported Studios, a collective of disabled artists supported by Crawford Art Gallery and MTU Crawford College of Art and Design, which have several artworks in the National Collection. Artists David Connolly, Tom O’Sullivan, Ide Ní Shúilleabháin, and Nicola Moran demonstrated their art techniques, while Yvonne Condon offered portraits to both of the MEPs.
Ms Langensiepen said that collectives like the Supported Studios “show that smaller projects and individual supports are an important part of how an inclusive society can be”. “These artists have a real choice and a real chance to paint,” she said. “The fact that it is in the centre of Cork also adds to how inclusive it is.”