What do a Benedictine monk, the director of the Louvre, a celebrated guitarist from Montenegro and a noted Irish garden designer have in common? They were just some of the participants in the recent Making In symposium held in furniture maker Joseph Walsh’s workshop outside Kinsale, Co Cork, on the family’s ancestral farm.
First launched in 2017, the two-day annual event gathers outstanding makers from a wide variety of practices all over the world. Oscar Wilde once said that good design comes from the hand, the heart and the head. This was very much in evidence at the symposium organised by Making In co-founder Frances McDonald. Curator, writer and historian Glenn Adamson is its longstanding moderator.
First to speak were Tarlach and Aine de Blacam of Inis Meain, who described how they established their successful knitwear business and the challenges they had to face on a small island in the Atlantic.
That was echoed by a stimulating presentation from Zita Cobb, the Canadian social entrepreneur from the tiny island of Fogo in Newfoundland who founded Shorefast, a charity dedicated to place-based economic development. Her experience of revitalising Fogo after the collapse of the cod fishing industry – building an award-winning inn, furniture workshops and artists residencies – earned the event’s standing ovation.
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There were many lighthearted moments. When Peter Ward of Country Choice, a tireless champion of local food, described the value of small producers and the bounty of the wild, he told how a local farmer’s wife persuaded her husband to let her into the front scoop of a tractor so she could reach the sweetest crab apples. “We don’t have adequate direct routes to markets,” he argued. “Sales of food in car parks is of national importance. Being able to grow and sell potatoes should be fostered.”
He was in conversation with plantsman and garden designer, the forthright Oliver Schurmann, who has just established a new Mount Venus nursery. Rory O’Connell of Ballymaloe was also involved in the discussion. Schurmann’s response to O’Connell’s declaration that dahlia bulbs were edible was that he hated dahlias and “splashes of colour”. He added: “We plant plants and they perform. We work in the present, the past and the future. We leave a legacy behind.”
It was a far cry from dahlias when Olivier Gabet, director of the Louvre, described how he brought fashion and art together in his groundbreaking exhibition Louvre Couture. That exhibition attracted more than one million visitors, making it the second most visited exhibition in the museum’s history. “The next step for the Louvre will be craft and design; we call it metiers d’art.”
Such forward thinking on museums was also echoed in the presentation from Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, director of London’s new Victoria & Albert East (the building designed by O’Donnell & Twomey). He argued that a contemporary museum must reflect the cultural diversity of the communities in which it is based.
London-based Milos, one of the world’s most celebrated classic guitarists, spoke passionately about his work and how inspired he was originally by the famous guitarist John Williams. Growing up, music education was free in Montenegro.
“My music comes from my soul and I am pleased that I can inspire other younger musicians”, he said before playing a piece that left the audience spellbound.
Another moment of many that stood out came from Niall Burgess, Irish Ambassador to France. He introduced Frere Paolo, a French Benedictine monk who joined the order at 26 and who makes and plays zithers. Frere Paolo detailed how these instruments are constructed and, in one of the breaks, demonstrated to the celebrated Irish fiddler Martin Hayes how zithers work.
Ambassador Burgess also explained that the Book of St Gall – “second only to the Book of Kells and last opened in Ireland 1200 years ago” – is temporarily on loan from the Abbey of St Gall, a UNESCO world heritage site in Switzerland, to the National Museum of Ireland. The exhibition comprises 17 manuscripts and is the Abbey library’s largest loan to date. It can be viewed in Kildare Street until October 24th, when it will return to St Gallen.
Joseph Walsh closed the proceedings revealing that he is working with architects O’Donnell and Twomey on a reimagined version of a traditional vernacular Irish cottage. It follows in the wake of their innovative architectural trilogy on the farm, the Passage House in thatch and wood, the Stone Vessel of quarried fieldstone and the Hedge Theatre, an open performance space.
He also announced that this would be the last Making In symposium, though he added that it might take another form. His most recent work is a monumental bronze and wood outdoor sculpture for the Irish Pavilion at Expo Osaka in Japan. Given that he has dedicated his life to making the impossible possible, his next move will be one to watch. In the meantime, a Pat Collins documentary on last year’s symposium can be found on RTÉ Player.
