Peasant Woman with Winnowing Basket  Artist- Unknown (French)  Date- late 1870s – Source and information: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’ But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing. This land was made for you and me.”
This Land is Your Land– Lost Verse (Woody Guthrie, 1940)

Who Decides What’s Private, What’s Shared?
The word “loot” entered English from Hindustani during British colonial rule, tied to the British East India Company’s colonial extraction of resources and wealth from India. Traces of such histories of empire, loot and commerce can be reclaimed and declaimed within these three Inishowen parks and commons.

Harry Swan’s Legacy: A Park & A Collection
Buncrana businessman Harry Swan (1879–1970) bequeathed Swan Park to the town and amassed an eclectic antiquities collection, now held by Ireland’s National Museum. Artists can access records or request viewings of objects like a 19th-century “witch ball” or an engraved 1729 tobacco box.

Moville’s Bath Green: A Colonial Gift
This scenic commons was a bequest from the Montgomery family, whose wealth and position stemmed in part from colonial exploits within the British East India Company. Sir Robert Montgomery, a key figure in suppressing India’s 1857 rebellion against colonial rule, later governed Punjab—his family’s legacy embedded in Moville’s landscape.

Inishowen’s Global Entanglements
Frederick Young (1786–1874), an Inishowen native, founded Mussoorie, a Himalayan hill station, and introduced potatoes to the region.
Charles O’Donnell, a Carndonagh MP, fiercely criticized British rule in India, linking Irish and Indian struggles against empire.

Reimagining the Commons
The Winnowing Basket interrogates these layered histories—colonial loot, contested ownership, and communal memory—through site-responsive works across Inishowen’s parks.

Art in the Park, The Winnowing Basket: Art Loot and the Commons, an outdoor exhibition produced by Artlink, transforms Inishowen’s public spaces into vibrant cultural hubs, making contemporary art accessible to all. This year’s edition takes place across three scenic locations – Swan Park in Buncrana, Barrack Hill Park in Carndonagh, and The Bath Green in Moville – inviting locals and visitors to engage with art in the open air.

Curated by Declan Sheehan, the exhibition explores the theme The Winnowing Basket, Art, Loot and The Commons, uncovering hidden histories, reimagining public spaces,  and art as a tool for reflection. Seven artists were selected through an international open call: Bbeyond, Denis Buckley, Marianna Bruno, Lisa Collomb, Sue Morris, Elaine Garde, and Kathleen O’Hara Farren. Their works will spark dialogue and connection within these communal landscapes.

A winnowing basket is a traditional farming tool used to separate grain from husks or chaff after harvest. The process – called winnowing – involves tossing the mixed grain and husks into the air so the wind blows away the lighter waste, leaving only the edible seeds behind. Symbolically, it represents the process of sorting, sifting, and reclaiming – letting go of what’s unnecessary to keep what nourishes.

In The Winnowing Basket art project, the name reflects:

• Uncovering hidden histories (like colonial loot vs. local heritage)
  
• Reimagining public spaces (what stories do we keep or discard?)
  
• Art as a process, tool for reflection shaking up the past to see what still holds value today.

Think of it as shaking the archives of history to see what truths remain.

Performance art collective Bbeyond will present an open collective live art Performance Monthly at Swan Park on 24th May at 1pm in responce to the project.

Denis Buckley’s performance and film work Loss Movement in 3 Parts will give voice to the legacy of exile and estrangement from land within the disadvantaged and often choiceless emigrant labourers ‘building up and tearing down’ the great colonial metropolises. The premier of the performance and film shot here in Inishowen will be premiered on Saturday 31st May at Barrack Hill Park.

Marianna Bruno’s Walking by the Ancestors is a series of illustrations born from the artist’s enchantment with objects from the Harry Percival Swan Collection of antiquities, archaeological artefacts and items of historical interest and their relation to folklore, mythology, religion and folk traditions of Irish cultural heritage, and will be on display in Swan Park throughout the month of May.

Lisa Collomb’s Bounded Strands transforms the hexagonal pavilion on the Bath Green Moville into a large scale weaving loom using recycled Indian sari silk representing the complex colonial history of Moville.

Sue Morris’s Commons references British Imperial history in the Indian subcontinent and Ireland, and the Gaelic social structure of communal landholding, while simultaneously speaking directly to the artist’s immediate family and its links to the Punjab.

Elaine Garde’s The Elephant in the Room : ‘Creach / Loot’ is a treasure chest of loot, proffering to people passing by in Swan Park a hoard of special coins. These embossed coins will be the infamous ‘Creach’ currency, a specially minted sovereign bond from Tir na Nog.

Kathleen O’Hara Farren’s Flax to Thatch & Linen event is on 5th May at Moville Bath Green where she will be joined by Brian Lafferty from Craigmór Thatching Services. Together they will demonstrate thatching and weaving fibres from flax into linen cloth, engaging in ancient crafts that evoke self reliance & sovereignty.