Port-Tales – An artistic response to Irish emigrant stories from the Imirce digital collection
Archives and heritage collections are enduring, authentic and reliable sources of information, but in the 21st century, it is clearer than ever that they cannot remain static, resisting reinterpretation. Art and cultural productions provide an invitation to engage with complex stories and subjective experience, and increase knowledge and understanding of the past in a way that the realm of history and heritage (certain, quantifiable) finds difficult to achieve on its own. Unlike historical records that are sealed documents of the past, art proposes a continuation of historical moments by pulling them into the present in meaningful ways. Following the launch of the Imirce repository of Irish emigrant letters and memoirs in March 2024, Eibhlίn Göppert and David Burke selected letters from the Kerby A. Miller Collection to underpin an exhibition that creatively explores the enduring themes of migration. The Exhibition Port-Tales (2024) is a collaborative exhibition by artist Eibhlίn G