Clare Arts Office will present ‘Kelp Meitheal – A Gathering of Seaweed and Shore People’, at Clare Museum, Ennis until March 21, 2026.
Currently open to the public, the official opening is taking place at 11am on February 21, 2026, by ethnologist Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh.
Funded by Clare County Council’s Creative Ireland grant, ‘Kelp Meitheal – A Gathering of Seaweed and Shore People’, documents the six months of physical shore work undertaken by the assembly of a coastal community at Coosheen/Farrihy Bay, County Clare.
The exhibition reimagines the process and methods used to gather and harvest seaweed on the foreshore, the construction of kelp drying stands and burning pits, as well as the burning of the kelp as it was done in the production of iodine more than a hundred years ago.
Through storied material, field illustrations, written word, photo captures, microfilms and sound recordings, these fieldnotes and research capture the transformation of the kelp makers and our watery relations, as well as their material connections through time.
For more information, visit clarearts.ie.