Downpatrick chosen as base for literary legacy from Olympic Games

Downpatrick chosen as base for literary legacy from Olympic Games

10 October 2012

DOWNPATRICK has been chosen as one of only seven UK-wide Beacon Towns to take part in Winning Words, a national public art initiative promoting poetry in the context of the 2012 Olympic Games.

The project aims to create a lasting literary legacy for the nation by providing funding for the seven Beacon Towns to create their own permanent poetry installations.

Down Arts Centre is managing the Downpatrick Beacon Town Project, and as such has installed the words of a poem by Newcastle woman Grainne Tobin, which spans two floors of the centre.

Funded through the Forward Arts Foundation, Down Arts Centre ran a district-wide competition to find to find the winning poem for the permanent art installation.

Grainne said she was delighted her poem ‘Learning to Whistle’ had been chosen, with the installation itself launched on Thursday to mark National Poetry Day.

“I love to come across poems in public places where people pass on their way to something else,” she said. “The 2012 Olympics and Paralympics made me think about what athletes and others get out of trying so hard to do something well.

“Children appear to be born needing to try things which fascinate them, and they put in huge effort doing things which adults think are pointless. I think life would be lovelier if more adults could indulge this appetite for playful effort that you see in sport and art.”

Kevin Killen from Loughinisland was selected to create the piece of artwork, which winds its way up the staircase, leading members of the public from the ground floor to the doors of the auditorium.