It’s National Heritage Week at IMMA!
IMMA’s home is the historic Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The Royal Hospital Kilmainham was built over 300 years ago. Originally, the Royal Hospital was a home for old soldiers. Click here for a video about the history of the Royal Hospital. At first, the beautiful gardens at the Royal Hospital were where plants and herbs were grown to be used as medicine. But over time, they became the private gardens of the Master of the Royal Hospital. In 1991, the Royal Hospital transformed into the home of the new Irish Museum of Modern Art—IMMA. Now the gardens are open to everyone.
For National Heritage Week, we invite you to re-imagine IMMA’s Formal Gardens.
What you will need:
- Paper
- Pencils
- A ruler
- Colouring pencils
Now, let’s get to work:
You are always welcome to visit IMMA and explore the beautiful gardens for yourself. You will find different types of trees, plants, and flowers, as well as long hedges that are like a maze. You can sit a while and do some drawings and sketches. But if you can’t visit the gardens in person, you can explore the gardens online by clicking here, and you can also have a look at the map of the Formal Gardens here. Now, start thinking of new and exciting ways you could redesign the gardens.
- Draw out a basic plan.
- Start to add details, like colour and different textures.
- You could even cut out images from magazines of plants and flowers you might like in your garden.
- Be as imaginative as you like.
Take a photograph of your creation when you’re finished! And please, share your results, your experiments, and artworks with the hashtag #ExploreratHome
