REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE 50TH TEXACO CHILDREN’S ART COMPETITION
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE 50TH TEXACO CHILDREN’S ART COMPETITION EXHIBITION OF WINNERS’ WORK
Dia dhíbh a cháirde. Tá mé thar a bheith sásta bheith anseo libh inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as fáilte fíorchaoin a chur romham.
It is my pleasure and privilege to be with you today to open the 50th Texaco Children’s Art Exhibition.
Art and design competitions come and go but the Texaco Children’s Art Competition seems to have been with us for as long as anyone can remember. Texaco has been consistent in sponsoring this much-loved, much anticipated event through the years, and on this the 50th anniversary of the competition, I would like to commend this company for the very significant contribution it has made to the cultural, educational and artistic life of Ireland.
During the lifetime of the competition, stretching back over that half century, we have seen how the visual arts have come centre in our nation’s cultural crown, with our painters, sculptors, film makers, photographers, designers, craftspeople and architects as admired and lauded as our writers, poets, dramatists, actors, dancers and musicians. And having seen some of the talent exhibited here, it is safe to presume that some of these budding artists will find their place in history.
Even at such a young age their work is impressive. There is a fascinating level of confident sophistication in the quality of their observations, their imagination and the way in which they use their personal experiences as an inspiration for their art. The openness, creativity and self-posessedness we see here are hugely important resources both in the personal development of the individual and the national development of our people. In this highly competitive globalised world in which we want to be leaders and trendsetters, innovators and inspirers, we need people who are mould breakers, who have learned from an early age to ‘think outside the box’, to look beyond received attitudes and to translate their creative energies into constructing the new reality out of which exciting and better futures will be crafted. They are here and they are terrific.
I warmly congratulate all the young people whose talent is on
display here. That courageous creativity and self-belief that you have demonstrated in this Exhibition will serve you and our country well today and in the future. Your participation in this great event has already deepened the cultural life of Ireland, adding to it colour, lustre, texture, images, challenges, perspectives and curiosity - things that lift life out of the mundane and unremarkable, giving it that edge that we feel here today in a very special way.
Whether the Irish are rich or poor, oppressed or free, at home or abroad we have always been characterized by our unique ability to express ourselves with great cultural vividness. Each generation adds its own signature to that rich heritage and these awards encourage a new generation to believe in its own talent, its right to make its own statement.
I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in this year’s competition with special congratulations to the winners. To the organizers a huge thank you for undertaking this massive task and doing it superbly. With 50,000 entries we can only begin to imagine the amount of work but pity the poor judges who also deserve our gratitude. What a thing to be asked to select 161 winners! But they have done it and given the legendary names of many previous winners we can be sure some of today’s winners are already starting their careers as artists.
Names like Robert Ballagh, Graham Knuttel, Dorothy Cross and Bernadette Madden are very telling of just how important a marker this competition is in the lives of our artistically talented young people. These past fifty years of the Texaco Art Competition have been good for Ireland in uncountable ways. The next fifty will be worth looking forward to. Well done.
Comhghairdeachas libh arís go léir. Go n-éirí go geal libh. Go raibh maith agaibh.