Press Release

Cats and Dogs do Yoga at St. Marys Senior School Clondalkin

South Dublin County Council is delighted to announce the launch of a new sculpture at St Marys Senior School, Clondalkin, on Thursday 10^th April at 10.30 a.m. Cats and Dogs do Yoga is a collaborative project between the Parks and Landscape Services Department and the Arts Office.

In 2005 an award was made by the Integrated Area Fund for Clondalkin for the provision of Art pieces for parks in North Clondalkin. The original purpose of the award was for the enhancement of the entrances to the larger parks by the location of appropriate art pieces. South Dublin County Council ran an open competition to which a number of artists responded for this and other similar projects in the county. Michael Disley, an English based artist was selected to undertake the commission for Collinstown Park based on the style of his sculpture work to date and his approach in working with local communities when creating the art pieces.

Following local consultation and fieldwork it was decided that the project should consist of one major piece in stone and the undertaking of workshops with local schools to create a number of smaller stone pieces which could be used creatively in the park. Further discussions locally led to a decision to locate the major piece in St. Marys Senior School in Rowlagh. This school is located adjacent to Collinstown Park and it was felt that since the sculpture piece would be focused on schoolchildren it would be more appropriately situated in the school grounds. There is also a long history of involvement by the Council with the School particularly through the Parks and Landscape Services Department and recently by the planting of trees in the school grounds as part of National Tree Week.

The three individual pieces of the sandstone sculpture, Cats and Dogs Do Yoga, therefore provide a very positive link for the children with the local park. They are very tactile and amusing and scaled to a childs size.

The individual pieces created in the workshops, under the supervision of the Artist Michael Disley, will be used in Collinstown Park and a suggestion made by the school is that they could form part of an Orienteering trail in the park.

This fine collaborative project between the Arts Office and the Parks and Landscape is one that can amuse, inspire and inform the creativity of the children and adults who pass by it during the school week.

South Dublin County Council hope that this project will be a springboard for continuing art in the community in North Clondalkin and, indeed, in South Dublin County.