The fourth Culture night at PURPLE RAVEN ART gallery had a
huge attendance this year with a bus pulling up at the gate to let people off
from Mullingar at the start of the night. Woodcarver Richie Clarke had three
magnificent wood sculptures on display and he put the finishing touches on the
Salmon of Knowledge while people watched him work…including the resident cat.
All three sculptures will be on display at the ploughing championships. Artist Morgan Gibbs had an audience around him
from the second he put up the easel until he left at the end of the night and
people were fascinated observing him paint.
‘The Valley Singers’ (Delvin) gave a great lively performance. They meet
every Friday night for rehearsals and new people are very welcome to join. Amanda Rogers, despite not feeling well,
entertained us with a beautiful bellydance. At
July’s Strong Women exhibition the gallery introduced a Trad Music Session to
their line-up of events and they ended up being the most talked about feature
of the night. They are a group of friends from the Athboy and Clonmellon area,
who have been playing together for years.
They were asked back and were joined by a few of the locals and they
were brilliant. They have promised they
will return to the gallery anytime. I would
like to thank most sincerely everyone involved in making culture night a
success .The support is very much appreciated.
It is lovely to see faces with huge smiles, where people are enjoying
themselves and to hear the familiar sound of laughter when friends and
neighbours meet. We seem to be left with some LOST PROPERTY items after every
event. The last event a set of false
teeth were found on the lawn. This time we have a coat, a car and a blonde
toupee!
