Texaco Children's Art Competition winners' artworks feature in unique Kildare exhibition

Kildare’s busy motorway services hub, Junction 14 Mayfield, is the venue for what is a truly unique exhibition of the top 21 award-winning artworks from this year’s 71st Texaco Children’s Art Competition, running until November 20 next.

Situated off the M7 motorway near Monasterevin, Junction 14 Mayfield has been transformed into a ‘gallery of artistic achievement’ where each of the 21 winning works are exhibited in 1.5 metres-tall, window-size formats enabling many thousands of customers who visit the venue daily to view the exhibition as they travel. 

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Opening the exhibition, Liam Fitzpatrick, co-owner of Junction 14 Mayfield said: “It’s wonderful to be able to provide a window into the world of talent that exists amongst Ireland’s young artists, especially one that can be seen and enjoyed by the countless number of motorists visiting our premises from the local communities of Kildare, Laois, other counties, and even countries further afield.”

Popularly regarded as the longest-running sponsorship in the history of arts sponsoring in Ireland, the Texaco Children’s Art Competition has an unbroken history that dates back to the first Competition held in 1955.

In the intervening years, it has been a platform on which hundreds of young artists throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised, most notably artists Robert Ballagh, Bernadette Madden, Dorothy Cross, and the late Graham Knuttel, fashion designer Paul Costelloe, and former Minister, Ruairi Quinn.

Reflecting on the long-standing business partnership with the Fitzpatrick family, which commenced in 1954 and includes other Texaco service stations in Naas and Monasterevin, James Twohig, Director of Ireland Operations, Valero Energy (Ireland) Limited – the company that markets fuel in Ireland under the Texaco brand – praised “the imagination and inventiveness shown in bringing the exhibition to Junction 14 Mayfield.”

“The fact that countless numbers of Irish and overseas visitors will stop to view the creative talents of Ireland’s young artists so prominently displayed, is an inspired initiative that we heartily applaud,” he added.

Counties whose artists are represented amongst the works being displayed are: Cavan, Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Waterford, Wicklow.