South Tipperary Art Group has produced many creative artists over the years

Several premises promote the South Tipperary Art Group (STAG) by hanging and selling artwork by adult artists.

They are Befani’s Restaurant, Sarsfield Street, Clonmel; The Showgrounds Shopping Centre, Waterford Road, Clonmel; the Outpatients Corridor at Tipperary University Hospital; The Leisure Centre at Hotel Minella, Clonmel and Slievenamon Golf Club.

The group is very grateful to the owners of these premises for displaying and selling the artwork.

Contact the Organiser, Maureen Purcell at 086-8096823 for membership details or to purchase a STAG artwork.

The junior members range from nine years up to 18 years of age. They meet on a Saturday morning from 10.30 am to 12 noon in the art room of Ss Peter and Paul’s Primary School, where they are taught art and craft by qualified tutors.

They are divided into the primary group, ranging in ages from nine years up to Sixth Class pupils, and the senior section, ranging from First Year students to Leaving Certs.

As they have five to six separate courses during the year from September to June, this gives them a chance to attend other hobbies on a Saturday morning also if necessary. Junior STAG also incorporates Out and About sessions, where the students draw all the different aspects of historical buildings and the townscape of Clonmel.

There are about 60 members in junior STAG, which is the limit of membership for juniors. Age is the only criteria for membership in the junior section. As places are limited in junior STAG, there is always a waiting list in operation.

Over the past 53 years, Junior STAG has supplied the art, craft and design industry with very many creative artists, who the group is very proud of and who have enriched the world in architecture, media design, animation, graphic design, ceramics, fine art, textiles, photography, and as illustrators, tutors and curators. They are great ambassadors for STAG and Clonmel.

During any one year, the STAG work team decorate the roundabout at Tesco, Clonmel for Halloween, Christmas and Easter and supply face-painting artists and tutors for festive events and courses in the Museum of Hidden History, in the County Council and around the county.

The adult members, along with retired people from the community, made a superb mosaic from objects called The Four Seasons, which is hanging in Tipperary University Hospital.

Members decorated the hoarding that surrounded Kickham Barracks, Clonmel while the building of the plaza was being completed.

Once the hoarding was removed, the group supplied many of the panels to schools and clubs in the county, repainting them all again.

Over many years they have painted murals in schools and in the community and have recently completed the mural at St Anthony’s Unit. Much artwork was done by Junior STAG members, with tutors, on the shelters in Ss Peter and Paul’s School with the latest artwork, After Mondrian being completed by all the Sixth Class Boys, under the watchful eyes of Tony and Maureen from the STAG work team.

The Organiser worked with some of the Sixth Class boys and Junior STAG members in completing a mosaic using bottle caps and jewellery, which is hanging in the library. Members of the work team also decorated the bench in Parnell Street last summer.

The group has a website www.South Tipperary Art Group and a Facebook page that are well worth checking out.

The group’s aim is to promote art in its broadest sense and to encourage a love of art/craft, creativity and culture in the community, as well as facilitating art/craft courses for young and old, advantaged and disadvantaged in Clonmel and south Tipperary.