Kilkenny founded national community arts project celebrates its fifth birthday
The project launched in Kilkenny in December 2019
Amber’s One Million Stars Ireland project celebrated its fifth birthday recently with the news that the national community arts project has achieved its halfway target of 500,000 stars.
Each star woven by a volunteer star weaver represents light, hope and solidarity against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV).
84,000 of these stars were hand woven by star weaving volunteers living in Kilkenny.
The project launched in Kilkenny in December 2019 when 10 stars were woven by volunteers at Newpark Close FRC.
Over the last five years, the project has grown nationwide with star weaving communities now in each of the 26 counties.
In 2023, the first stars were woven in Northern Ireland in collaboration with The Ending Gender Based Violence Against Women and Girls Team at the Northern Ireland Executive at Stormont.
TDs and Senators from the main political parties have also woven stars with the One Million Stars project in Leinster House.
The project’s values of inclusivity and volunteerism were acknowledged by President and Mrs Sabina Higgins at an event at Áras an Uachtaráin earlier this year.
Many of the stars woven for the project are curated into a travelling art installation titled ‘LOVE’, which has been displayed at various sites across Kilkenny city since 2019.
In 2024, ‘LOVE’ travelled outside Kilkenny for the first time to Carlow and Waterford. There are plans for the installation, which contains tens of thousands of hand-woven stars, to travel to other counties in 2025.
“We started with 10 stars hand woven in Kilkenny five years ago. Star weaving volunteers across the country have now collectively woven half a million stars, which demonstrates the power of connection and working towards a shared goal. Thank you to the volunteers who weave at home and those who weave in schools, organisations, associations, businesses, community groups, domestic abuse and other services and in many Volunteer Centres across the country for engaging with our project and helping us to shine a light on all forms of gender-based violence,” said Siobhan McQuillan, Project Lead, Amber’s One Million Stars project.
“A special thank you to the team at Kilkenny Volunteer Centre for their ongoing commitment to the project. We hope reaching this significant milestone of 500,000 stars in five years will encourage our star weaving volunteers to keep going and inspire more people to get involved!” continued Siobhan.
Amber’s One Million Stars Ireland project is an award winning, inclusive community arts project connecting communities across Ireland in solidarity against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV).
The project was brought to Ireland and is directed here by Art Therapist Siobhan McQuillan working with Amber Women’s Refuge.
“Our project supports a core recommendation of the Implementation Plan for ‘Zero Tolerance’ the Third National Strategy to tackle DSGBV, that of ‘raising public awareness of DSGBV in all its forms and across all groups in society’. Each of the stars woven by project volunteers is a visual petition against gender-based violence. This sends the powerful message to victim-survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence that they are not alone. It also sends a message to the perpetrators of all forms of violence and abuse against women that their behaviour will not be tolerated” said Lisa Morris, Manager, Amber Women’s Refuge.
Amber’s One Million Stars project is part of the global One Billion Stars project, founded in Australia in 2012 by artist Maryann Talia Pau after the rape and murder of an Irish woman living in Melbourne.
To get involved in Amber’s One Million Stars Ireland project you can register as a star weaver or weaving group at www.onemillionstarsireland.ie.