Children's Art Competition

Winning Entries to Feature in Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival Programme Guide

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival and Children's Bumble Bee Festival are the highlight of the Easter weekend in Kerry. Since 1992 the Festivals have drawn lovers of the Arts from all over Kerry to Tralee where they participate in a wide variety of wonderful events that take place over the Easter weekend.

Samhlaiocht, which means 'imagination' as Gaeilge, has captured people's imagination and the Festivals offer something for young and old alike. The Festivals have a different theme every year and routinely see in excess of seventy artistic events taking place in Tralee.

The theme for the 2009 Festival is 'Imagination' and in an exciting new departure Samhlaiocht is offering children from all over the county the opportunity to see their work immortalized in the pages of next year's Festivals' Programme Guide.

"Every year our Programme Guide is snapped up by attendees at the festival," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht, "so we've decided that the programme guide should also be part of the festival. We're holding an art competition and encouraging children from all over the county to send us their drawings and paintings and we'll select work to appear though-out the Programme Guide!"

With winning entries being selected for the covers of the Programme Guide, for the Posters that appear during the lead-up to the Festival and appearing though-out the festival itself, the competition is expected to generate a lot of interest.

"Samhlaiocht has been encouraging artistic talent in Kerry since 1992," added O' Mahony, "and hopefully this extra little event will bring joy to the thousands of people that enjoy our programme guides. We're hoping that next year's guide will be the most imaginative and colourful ever!"

The closing date for the competition is December 1st and interested parties are asked to send entries to Easter Art Competition, Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, 20 Lower Castle Street, Tralee.

Entries should not be smaller than A4 and not larger than A2. All entries should have the following information printed on the reverse of each piece of work: Name and Age of Artist, Home Address or School Address of Artist, Contact Phone number of Artist and the title of the work.

Each entry should be accompanied by the name and signature of the artist's parent, teacher or guardian.

The 2009 Easter Arts and Children's Bumble Bee Festivals will run from April 11th to April 13th, 2009. If you would like to see your artwork appear in the Programme Guide or in the Festival please send entries or contact Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934 or via email info@samhlaiocht.com for more information.