Ellen Hutchins Festival
Annual Update for the year 2019
Five Years
It’s five years since the Bantry Historical Society announced at its meeting on 9th February 2015 (the bicentenary of Ellen’s death), that the first ever celebration of the life and work of Ellen Hutchins would be held in August that year in the Bantry area, and a plaque put on Garryvurcha church.
What a lot has happened since then! We have five festivals under our belt, and a whole range of other activities, including exhibitions at Trinity College Dublin and UCC. Members of the Festival team have given talks and written articles, and have provided material to others writing about Ellen. Ellen’s correspondence has been transcribed. We have produced a number of small publications ourselves, including the Heritage Trail (with its Audio Guide), and the Micro-nature guide to lichens on Snave Beach. There is a wealth of information on our website, including four short films, and it has been a resource for students, writers and poets, and historians studying Ellen.
2019
In the past twelve months, we have added significantly to our achievements and others have picked up and run with Ellen’s story, in Ireland, and in the UK and USA.
New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) followed up on its inclusion of Ellen in their Valentine weekend Plant Love exhibition, with Ellen featured in a live Facebook event in March that is now a video on their Facebook page with 1.7k views. See Laura Briscoe’s lovely piece about Ellen and some of Ellen’s specimens in the video: facebook.com/NYBotanicalGarden
Ellen Hutchins is included in a book, Through Her Eyes, a new history of Ireland by Clodagh Finn, published by Gill Books in October. ‘Told through the prism of the lives of twenty-one extraordinary women, it offers an alternative vision of Irish history’. Madeline contributed to the Ellen chapter.
An exhibition, Celebrating Ellen Hutchins, in the Library Reading Room at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London (September to November) was the first ever Ellen event in England. Kew holds the majority of Ellen’s wonderful drawings of seaweeds, and all the letters she received from Dawson Turner and James Mackay. They also hold copies of the beautiful big botany books of the early 1800s that have Ellen’s plant finds and her illustrations in them, and lovely tributes to her as a botanist. These were included in the displays, framed by photographs of Bantry Bay.
Funding from the Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) South enabled the Festival Team to undertake Eight Enhancement Projects.
Small Book: we are delighted that the first book on Ellen Hutchins was published in Bantry by the Ellen Hutchins Festival in association with the Bantry Historical Society. Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) Botanist of Bantry Bay was launched in the Bantry Bookshop, by John Fitzgerald from UCC Library, during the West Cork Literary Festival in July, and has been selling well since then. The text was expanded from an essay on Ellen written by Madeline Hutchins for the Historical Society’s Journal in 2018, and with many illustrations and photographs, combined with stunning design by Jenny Dempsey, the result is a lovely little book of which we are very proud.
Hand lenses: at the Festival, we showed over two hundred people how to use a hand lens, and made lenses easily available for loan and for sale, including online from the website.
Seaweed guide: we produced the second of our series of mini guides, the Seaweeds of inner Bantry Bay, written and illustrated by Frances Gallagher and Clare Heardman. It’s great for families and encourages you to explore the shore and see how many different seaweeds you can find.
Bantry Bay Explorers’ Kit: the kit comprises a hand lens on a lanyard, a note on how to use one, a weatherproof see-through bag / map case, the Micro-nature guide to lichens on Snave Beach, and the new mini guide to seaweeds in inner Bantry Bay. This is for sale in Bantry Bookshop.
Botanical Art Starter Pack: everything you need to start your botanical art journey – just add water! The beautiful booklet is written and illustrated by Shevaun Doherty and designed by Jenny Dempsey. It is as an excellent step by step introduction to watercolour botanical drawing. The pack has paints, paper, sketchbook, pencil, ruler, brush and eraser. It makes a very stylish gift, including to yourself!
We launched it online in mid December and sold out within two days, posting them across Ireland and round the globe. They have sold well in Bantry. Kew Gardens is putting them in their shop. Order from the Store page on the Ellen Hutchins website ellenhutchins.com/store/
Projects 6 to 8: Costume research: Carrie O’Flynn, Historical Re-enactor, has completed part one of a two-part research project on clothing in the early 1800s that Ellen is likely to have worn, with a focus on outdoors when ‘botanising’. Look out for the results of part two in 2020. Website: interactive map: the first stage of showing where Ellen’s specimens were sent, whose hands they have passed through and where they are now. Exhibition panels: from the UCC exhibition of 2018, adapted and ready to be sent out to venues requesting a display on Ellen.
Festival: again this was a delightful mix of old and new: many regular leaders of sessions returning, and new leaders added. Frances Gallagher led a seaweed foraging and tasting event, Paul Whelan led a lichens walk, and Professor Astrid Wingler from UCC led a plant hunt. Sue van Coppenhagen ran a nature art demonstration, a workshop and Wild Child sessions. Niall McAlister led kayakers on a wildlife trail, Claire O’Sullivan of WASi provided tasting samples of seaweed pesto, John at Future Forests gave a walking talk about plants and Khloe Woods of Two Green Shoots led adult and children’s workshops. Ciara Strange and Etaoin Melville joined the Wild Child nature art team.
The Cork Historical and Archaeological Society Journal published an article by Madeline Hutchins about Ellen Hutchins and her Cork City Connections. They used Clare Heardman’s wonderful photograph of Carrie O’Flynn in period costume on the beach on Whiddy island as the cover image.
2020
Saturday 7th March is the opening of the National Gallery of Ireland exhibition, Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Artists, including work by Ellen Hutchins and Shevaun Doherty (the Festival’s resident botanical artist). The exhibition is free and runs until 21st June.
Next is the launch of the historical novel based on Ellen’s story. A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee is published by New Island, and will be launched at Hodges Figgis bookshop, Dublin, on Wednesday 8th April at 6pm. Marianne will be talking about her book in the West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry in July, and she will take part in the Ellen Hutchins Festival in August.
The Sixth Ellen Hutchins Festival will run from Saturday 15th to Sunday 23rd August 2020. The outline programme will be on the website by the end of February, and the full information by May.
Madeline Hutchins, Ellen Hutchins Festival, 10th February 2020