Kells celebrating typography as a modern art form

The annual Kells Type Trail is currently on display in Kells and will run until 30th September, when there will be a celebration to mark the end of the event.

Kells TypeTrail is an annual festival celebrating typography and lettering as a modern art form. Each year one word is translated into a variety of languages reflecting the diversity of the community in Kells. This year’s theme is the word ‘journey’.

Local artist, Mark Smith, the driving force behind the trail explains that the word 'journey' was chosen this year because the monks of Kells who created wonderful books, took their art and talents on long journey's to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Each year, the Type Trail comes about through a series of collaborations and workshops with local primary schools, students from Athlone Institute of Technology, Dundalk DKIT, local artists, poets and Meath Arts Office.

"This year we have a group called The Bronte Sisters involved and we had a project with fifth class in St Cillian's National School, Mullagh," Mark explains.

"The Mullagh children's work used Irish, English and German."

There are 30 installations around Kells including a giant location pin with the word the Kells expression 'C'mere'. It has been installed on top of the Hardware store in Farrell street.

"We have also had students who created maps as a guide to Dante's Inferno ."

Mark says that because of Covid-19, the usual launch hasn't taken place, but there will be some sort of event on 30th September when the trail finishes.

The trail uses the streets of Kells as a canvas and features indoor and outdoor art installations, which form a walking trail around the town.

Mostly temporary in nature, each year one piece is chosen as a TypeTrail legacy piece with the long-term objective of a permanent TypeTrail presence in the town.

This is the eleventh year of the type trail and over the past decade or so relationships with community groups, schools and third level institutions both home and abroad has advanced hugely.

What started out as a small community art project is now a large-scale collaborative festival celebrating typography as a modern art form while promoting inclusivity, diversity and access.

The tenth anniversary last year saw a retrospective exhibition by the Kells Type Trail Collective entitled: 'A Canvas of Type' which looked back at some of the pieces submitted to the festival since its inception.