Cork gets an art squat

cork | arts and media | news report

Thursday February 03, 2005 23:15

by one day... collective

The 'one day' collective today came public about their two week occupation of the old school of music on Wellington rd, Cork city, with a very positive article in Inside Cork, a local free paper, the collective are a group of artists wanting to make this year into a true capital of culture not just a culture of capital, they are a group of painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, community artists, wood and metal workers, dreamers and schemers.
Their aim is to create a much needed space for artists to work and exhibit without restrictions, to create a positive vibrant place for the community where once was a derilict shell.

The group have occupied the beautiful old building which belongs to Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) which has been empty for over twelve years!!

The buildings was originally called the 'one day week' were students who left school between 14 and 16 would finish there studies one day a week. It was then briefly the school of music, a school hounded by contraversy as its homeless pupils await a new premises they are forced to practice in a space rented in a local hotel!!
While unknown to them CIT sit on their old premises and allow it to fall into deriliction.

No more, Now renamed One Day..., the building is a hub of activity as the group paint its railings, fix up its rooms, patch holes, make links with neighbours, make it a safe and vibrant space for artists and non artists alike.

The space is quite inspiring, 11 grand pianos quietly rot in shed!!, these too have plans to be fixed up and returned to the community.

The group are in talks with CIT, who havn't been the most coperative, trying to evict them under the anti-traveller tresspass act, at which the gardi, refused to co-operated with them.

We will continue to work on our art, with our community and act as if this is a true cultural time, against all the odds, we will dream, create and celebrate, and work hard towards a time when we live in a fair and equal society. one day...