New DGS Art Work

The design criteria for this project entitled “Reflections of Dundalk Grammar School” were to create a colourful, engaging work of art for the foyer of the Harper Building and as a consequence hopefully provide enjoyment for staff and students as they pass by each day.

The Georgian windows in Hanbidge House provided the inspiration for the shape of the piece and this also helped it create a link between the old and new buildings. This window then is intended to provide a view/reflection, through its panes, of all that goes on in the school, hence the title of the piece “Reflections of Dundalk Grammar School”.

Reflections on DGS

Reflections on DGS

The subjects taught in the school, together with the school’s main sports and activities, are represented in some way either pictorially or on book spines. The school ethos is represented by the Grace.

The Virginia Creeper, such an iconic part of the façade of the Georgian building, is incorporated into the piece. Values and qualities, which the school espouses and wishes to develop in its students, are printed on the leaves at the sides of the window and key dates in the history of the school are printed on the three leaves below the title.

The piece is therefore a kind of snapshot in time of DGS and will decades hence (assuming it survives), provide a record, albeit a whimsical one, of the school circa 2015.

While fully aware that art is a very personal thing and tastes differ with every individual, it is the sincere wish of the three people involved in its creation, (the artist Diane McCormick, the school’s art teacher Jacqui Gray and the work’s commissioner Valerie Meagher), that “Reflections of Dundalk Grammar School” has fulfilled its design criteria and will be embraced and enjoyed by all in DGS.

Valerie Meagher (October 2015)

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