There are no words left to describe the horror of what is happening to the people of Gaza for over a year now.
As the war continues, and our hearts break afresh at every new video that appears on our social media feeds, it is easy to think that our efforts are in vain. But they are not in vain, and we must continue to support and donate to the causes that are providing practical and much-needed help to those who have been displaced.
One of those causes is Irish Visual Artists for Gaza, a broad collective of Irish visual artists, designers and artisans, who together have raised more than €80,000 so far for life-saving aid for displaced Gazan families and orphans since April.
The brainchild of Dee Conneely, Leigh Brady and Aoife Neasy, it started life after a conversation between Leigh and Dee about the devastating events unfolding on a daily basis in Palestine.
Leigh is an international human rights worker who had lived in Palestine for over five years and was being contacted by families on the ground in Gaza, who had lost everything. She wanted to organise a fundraiser, but didn’t know where to start.
An art teacher from Co Galway, Dee had some connections in the art world and decided to organise prize draws of art by Irish visual artists.
“I have always believed in the power of art to inspire and change people’s hearts and minds,” she said. “I knew some Irish artists from my days at the Limerick School of Art and my gut feeling was that they would want to support our initiative.”
The response was phenomenal – over 70 Irish visual artists donated stunning pieces of art, craft and design for the initial art prize draw, which took place in May.
“We were blown away by the response to our call-out for art donations, both in terms of the talent of the artists that got on board, their generosity, and the range of beautiful pieces donated. There was everything from fashion design, printmaking, ceramics, fine art, jewellery, textiles, and craftwork,” recalled Dee.
Among the artwork up for grabs for the initial prize draw were paintings by renowned artists Lola Donoghue, Eadaoin Glynn and Sheila Wallis, leather accessories by internationally acclaimed designer Una Burke, a stunning customisable charm chain from MyFrkl by Angela Scanlon, jewellery by Andrea Mears and Bold Lines and a poignant hand-coloured portrait by Anne-Marie Farrell depicting Mohammed Al-Yazi, an orphaned 14-year-old boy from Gaza holding his 6-month-old sister in his arms. Singer-songwriter Imelda May donated a signed limited edition of a book of her poetry, and street artist Joe Caslin donated a print of one of his iconic murals. The range of art that was donated can be viewed on the initiative’s Instagram page: @irish_visual_artists_for_Gaza.
Initially, the trio had not planned on doing more art prize draws as fundraisers, but when the art donations kept flowing and the situation on the ground in Gaza just got worse and worse, Dee, Leigh and Aoife were adamant they would keep trying to raise as much money as possible to cover basic needs such as clean drinking water, food parcels and tents for groups of displaced families in Gaza.
What followed has been weekly art and design draws in aid of specific families, who are highlighted on the Instagram page and stories for a week. This is a joint initiative between Irish Visual Artists for Gaza and Gaza go Bragh, an Irish-Palestinian collective providing direct humanitarian support to displaced families in Gaza and has helped to raise almost €10,000 in donations for individual families.
In addition to these weekly draws, Irish Visual Artists for Gaza have found more and more creative ways to sell, auction and raffle Irish art, craft and design in aid of Gaza. They co-organised a Gig for Gaza with musician Deirdre Murphy at the Cobblestone pub in Dublin in June, with live music, a live art auction and an art sale. Another collaboration was with Rosemary Durr, Hugo Byrne and Little Lou Cooks to raffle a knife beautifully crafted by Hugo and a ceramic bowl exquisitely made by Rosemary.
On sale at the moment are prints of an original design by artist Jason O’Gorman commissioned by the actor Hilary Rose. “These two beautiful people came together to reimagine the Cork coat of arms with the slogan ‘Safe Harbour for All Ships’. They donated 35 artist quality prints of this design for us to sell with all the proceeds going to Gaza Go Bragh,” explained Leigh.
And there is more in the pipeline, as Leigh shares: “We are very excited to soon be launching the sale of eight exquisite stained-glass sunbirds, which have been created with great love and craftsmanship by the artist Amanda Waite, to honour children who were killed in Gaza in the past year. The proceeds from these sunbirds will go to Ahmed Wishah, a 23-year-old Gazan who has worked tirelessly to help his community since the genocide began.”
Ahmed currently is accepting donations for his winter project to replace worn tents for displaced families in Central Gaza. Ahmed himself has been displaced several times over the past year.
Another initiative in the works is a collaboration between Irish Visual Artists for Gaza, artist Anne-Marie Farrell and art shop Jam Art Factory. Anne Marie Farrell has illustrated dozens of portraits of Gazans over the past year, with a focus on Gazan journalists, children and mothers.
Her portraits are extremely life-like and beautifully poignant and the Dublin-based company has agreed to sell a limited edition of one of Anne-Marie’s portraits.
The trio are busy planning another big draw featuring talented Irish makers before Christmas. This fundraiser will include a live event and the top prize is a €1000 voucher for original artwork by Lillian Ecock, who donated to their first prize draw. There’s also a stunning print by renowned artist Mary Nagle and jewellery by Janice Byrne and Emer Roberts.
Follow Irish Visual Artists for Gaza on Instagram @irish_visual_artists_for_Gaza and click on the links in their bio to donate, buy or bid on the beautiful art, craft and design currently available.
