Julie Duane, M.St., PG.Dip. (Educational Studies), H.Dip. (Adult and Community Education), Dip.(Chemical Technology), LLCMTD, ALCM.

 

It was a privilege to be invited to create an Artist’s notebook as part of the Co.Kildare Artists notebook collection .I have been at ease with my inner Artist but have struggled most of my life with the notion, that I am named ,identified, as an Artist.

Art, as a culture, was viewed by my family as a luxury, for other people in other classes, who could afford art and who could afford to be artistic. Mine was a working class background where the struggle to survive and thrive and keep the body and soul of a family together was an art in itself. My childhood memories are flooded with songs, stories, music, dance and crafts of knitting and crochet, none of which was perceived as Art.

I have worked as a scientist, actress on stage and screen, radio and television researcher and presenter, teacher and drama lecturer .However, it was thanks to being the Co.Kildare Arts and Library services Storyteller in residence from 2005 -2009, that I truly embraced and donned the mantle of the working Artist. I am a craftswoman, a singer of songs, a writer who tells and shares stories ,that inspire children and adults to connect with their inner artist. Universally, stories can spark and ignite the imagination. We make connection with ourselves and the world through story and song. I continue to be part of Co. Kildare Arts Services Artist in Schools programme.

I created this notebook with the intention of showing, how seeds of inspiration for stories, rhymes and songs are sown. I carry a notebook in my hand bag and jot down anything that inspires or occurs to me .I continue to write and share my stories, rhymes and songs. My intention is to write stories and to leave a legacy and love of stories and song.

I was born in London, England in 1959. My mother came from a small farm holding in Kanturk, Co. Cork and we moved back from London to my father’s home town , Newbridge, Co.Kildare when I was three years old. I attended St. Conleth’s primary school and the Holy Family Post primary school where I was blessed to be taught by a number of inspirational teachers who nurtured my love of learning. It was through these teachers and Newbridge Folk group that my inner Artist was nurtured. In school, I had opportunities to sing and act onstage in musicals and plays.

My parents had been schooled to primary level but it was my mother, in particular, who saw education as a way out from the poverty trap. She saw education as a means to liberate her children and the means for them to secure a steady income and job for life. I was the first in my family to have the opportunity of a third level education. My education was achieved through family financial struggle, tenacity and commitment and my success in achieving so much in education is not my achievement alone.