This year we welcomed back a group from The Agnes Irwin School for a second session of their SSP program focusing on drawing, photography, and the history and culture of Ireland.

Their time was jam packed and fun filled. Some of our activities included a three day trip to Dublin where we visited Kilmainham Gaol, Fire Station Artist Studios and the Royal Hibernian Academy. A day trip in Wexford was highlighted by a visit to Hook Head to see the oldest continuously operational lighthouse in the world, a ramble through the picturesque Tintern Abbey and a tour of the Dunbrody famine ship. Back at the Cow House the girls were treated to an evening of traditional Irish stories by story teller Jack Lynch, an artist talk by local artist Kate Murphy, and an exchange with students from Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School.

In the studio everyone worked diligently through drawing, photography and bookmaking workshops, culminating in some wonderful handmade books. The nighttime photograph above by Margee Howell was taken during our night photo workshop. Amidst all the hard work lots of time was still found to play with the dogs, cycle and jog around the block, and to celebrate two birthdays!

This was our first group with our new baby boy Michael, and we couldn't have asked for a more kind, thoughtful and warm hearted group of girls to share it with. The two weeks seemed to just fly by, and we really look forward to catching up with everyone this winter. We would like to especially thank Keri Farrow for all her hard work in putting the trip together, and look forward to another great trip in 2014! You can have a look at images from the trip here.

It has been six days since the girls from Agnes Irwin left the farm, the dogs are lonely and the place couldn’t be quieter. We were fortunate to meet such a great group of girls; Nancy makes a great Lady Gaga, May-Lin has a natural talent for printing in the darkroom, Cristina likes floating on the pond, Katie H. has a great eye for composition, Katey D. doesn’t know which way is up, Emma makes beautiful figure drawings, Emmie has some great embarrassing stories, Kelton may have an unhealthy obsession with gnomes, Isabelle likes to see Frank bbq-ing her dinner, Megg can run faster than a speeding bike, Aynana has creativity to spare, Alison liked the food... she really liked the food and Kelly has BOUNDLESS patience. We were really impressed with your final projects and excited to see such a variety of approaches to your books. We hope to see you all this winter and look forward to a bowling reunion!

Thank you to Amanda for being such a great chaperone and great company, and a very special thank you to Keri for all her support and hard work in setting up the trip. We had a fantastic time with the everyone.

Click here to see photos and to read a little more about the programme.

A big thank you to everyone involved with bringing the incredible kids from New Orleans and Tallaght together here at the Cow House for ten intense days of art-making. Rosie and I would like to especially thank Jackie for putting together such an ambitious project, and thinking of our studio as a place to end her residency here in Ireland, Maria for working so hard to ensure that everything ran smooth, and helping out in every possible way be it writing grant applications, cooking in the kitchen, helping out in the studios or designing awesome t-shirts. We would also like to thanks Timeka, Turron and YAYA for bringing such a great group of kids over from New Orleans. We can't wait to see ya'll on your home turf and try out those famed Po-Boys. And of course a fond farewell to Jay, Jasmine, Azania, Chloe, Aine, Padrig, Kwayne, Jourdan and Sarah. You will be missed dearly.

Cow House Studios are proud to announce our support for and collaboration with artist Jackie Sumell in her newest project A=AGHT. For ten days our studios will facilitate a collaboration between students from New Orleans, LA and Tallaght, Co Dublin on projects designed by participating artists including Cow House founders Frank Abruzzese and Rosie O'Gorman.

A=AGHT is a project designed by lead artist Jackie Sumell under the South Dublin County Percent for Art Scheme. Ms. Sumell is currently artist-in-resident through In Context-3 Programme, based in Tallaght and has been working in New Orleans over the last 7 years.

A=AGHT is a concept based on creating the same sound from two entirely different spellings. This serves as the conceptual catalyst for the process of identifying and extracting commoness in seemingly different communities. NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and Tallaght (South County Dublin).

A=AGHT is a semi-utopic virtual space/town whose rules, population and culture are generated by a facilitated exchange between youth from New Orleans and Tallaght. Adult artists and cultural workers from both cities will develop projects that encourage youth participants to explore historic moments, social grievances, ethnic and racial disparities in order to invent a place of creative resolve.