Dermot Carmody
In this the year that the Tokyo Olympics took place, it’s not just Irish sporting achievement that will be on display in the city, but the artistic talent of young Irish people including that of 18-year-old Róisín Long from Sandford Park School, Ranelagh, whose work will be one of four Irish paintings on exhibition at the 22nd International High School Arts Festival which takes place in Tokyo this August.
Róisín’s painting, Inchydoney Beach, won her a prize in the 66th Texaco Children’s Art competition last year. The children’s art competition has been running since 1955 and has been hugely popular from the start, attracting around 20,000 entries every year. In the inaugural contest children were invited to illustrate the phrase ‘Keep It Quiet’, a slogan that was being used to promote Havoline motor oil at that time. The response was so great that the organisers realised they had tapped into something big and subsequent competitions have run annually with no such limiting brief.
Róisín’s award places her in company with many other artists and celebrities who were prizewinners in their youth. Artists Graham Knuttel and Robert Ballagh were winners, as were fashion designer Paul Costello, broadcaster Thelma Mansfield and fromer Dublin South East Labour TD Ruairi Quinn!
The International High School Arts Festival is one of the most prestigious exhibitions to take place in Tokyo annually. The festival is sponsored by the International Foundation for Arts and Culture. The 500 pieces of art on show in August have been selected from around 14,000 submissions from schools around the world.
Other 2020 Texaco winning artworks displayed in Tokyo will be ‘Kevin In The Pink’ by Casey Etherton (17), from Coláiste na Sceilge, Cahersiveen; ‘Everything But The Kitchen Sink’ by Katie Cumiskey (16) from Our Lady’s Secondary School, Castleblayney, and a self-portrait by P.J. Doherty (15), a pupil at St. Eunan’s College, Letterkenny.
NewsFour would like to extend a big congratulations to Róisín and the other artwork winners on their brilliant achievement, and wish them the very best in their future careers.
