Open 10:30–5:00, Tuesday – Saturday
St Peter’s Place as seen from the Blue School
An exploration of a work by artist and founder of the
Drogheda Municipal Art Collection – Bea Orpen
Culture Night Gallery Talk by Brian Trench
Friday 20th at 7.30pm, free, but booking essential as space is limited
Founders of the Collection, husband and wife, businessman and artist, Terry Trench and Bea Orpen, moved to Drogheda where they would settle in the region and bring up a family and add greatly to business, cultural, community and educational life of the area, founding the Drogheda Municipal Art Collection in June 1946, with the support of the local authority. 60 years later, Highlanes Gallery, the Municipal Art Gallery for Drogheda and the North East would be established, the now home of the Collection and a dynamic programme of exhibitions and public engagement activities.
Earlier this year, we acquired a work of Bea’s St Peter’s Place as seen from the Blue School, the Blue School also being the former home of the Orpen/Trench’s during their early years in Drogheda.
For Culture Night, Bea’s son Brian discusses this work, its curiosities in terms of its real and imagined views of the Drogheda townscape, his mother’s practice, and the heritage and history of the Blue School.
The work will be on view for the first time as part of the Collection for Culture Night.
