Craft Master's Café is an exciting new venture for Longford town

Culture Night (which took place last Friday) is a wonderful opportunity to make art accessible. It's a night where the public can look behind the scenes of art venues and creators to see the mechanism that makes them tick.

Taking advantage of the open night that celebrates heritage is The Craft Master's Café. The Craft Master's Café is an exciting new venture for Longford town. This gallery is set up to provide the public an opportunity to meet and work with international artists currently living in the Midlands.

Alla Shmyhovska is one of the main organisers of the Café. She brought The Leader on a tour of the venue set to be transformed for Culture Night.

“We are going to present a range of different skills. It will include skills like papier-mâché, embroidery, decoupage, beading, felting and doll making. Our members are also going to paint pictures,” Alla said.

Craft Master's Café significant undertaking. The location for the venture is massive.

Alla sweeps her arm to encompass the space of the store that was previously the home to Gamestop: “All this is going to be decorated in the style of early 20 Century design. We are inspired by the famous painter Alphonse Mucha. He was famous for his posters for Sarah Bernhardt.”

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Mucha was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist is synonymous with Art Nouveau, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized theatrical posters. His influence will set the tone for the Craft Master's Café.

“We will have Ukrainian ladies working on various skills at tables here,” Alla points to a corner, “It is going to be an immersive experience, with theatrical elements. People will start singing, and there will be other elements that will be a surprise for visitors.”

The Craft Master's Café organiser says it will be a multi cultural experience: “We are going too have Irish singers and artists as part of the event.”

The collective will present the work of around 20 artists. Invigilating will be by the artists themselves: “Many work, some are in college. We will take shifts, so there will be at least five people on hand to talk about just what the The Craft Master's Café is.”

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Alla wants as many people as possible to experience the event: “We hope students from the local schools will attend. We would absolutely love if people who have traditional skills, like knitting, crochet or anything else joined us. I hope it will renew interest in tradition handcrafted skills.

“Some people believe that skills from the olden days are no longer relevant, because life is so different. I believe we will need these skills soon. It is interesting to create something of your own, something unique, something that is not mass produced.”

Alla says the Café is for everyone: “The theme is universal. I want to show something that is not simply Ukrainian folk, but part of a wider European art movement. We have a lot of materials coming from Italy and France and we would love to see as many Irish people joining us.”

The Craft Master's Café is in Unit 2, Grafton Court, Longford town and opened on culture Night September, Friday, September 22, 2023. It was also open over the rest of the weekend. The Café then takes a short break during which it will be renewed.

It opens again from Tuesday, September 26 to Saturday, September 30.

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