Bookmarks, a joint project of The Ark and Trinity Access Programme, was launched on Friday 30 January. Three classes from Marist NS (Crumlin), Our Lady of Lourdes NS (Goldenbridge) and Scoil Cholmcille (Ballybrack) will be spending the next six weeks working with two Ark artists, Laura de Búrca and Liz Smith, creating and illustrating adventure stories and finally binding it all together to make their very own book!

On Friday the participating classes gathered in Trinity College for an exciting morning. Laura and Liz explained the workshops to the school groups and described all the exciting things that lie ahead. Then the classes met with Aubrey Flegg, a famous Irish children’s author, who told them where he gets his inspiration from and where they might find inspiration for their own stories. Finally, the children experienced a tour of The Book of Kells. They saw all the beautiful illustrations of animals and decorative letters as well as learning lots of interesting facts about the book.

The day provided plenty of ideas for the school groups involved and we can’t wait to see the finished work! A public exhibition of the finished books will take place in the Long Room of Trinity College from Tuesday 24 to Tuesday 31 March.

In the meantime, we hope to bring you news from The Ark artists and the budding authors on this page over the next few weeks...