Local artists struggling with ongoing lockdown
Over 60 small artists, housed in the local Galway art studio Two Wild Geese, have been impacted by the Irish Government’s decision to extend the lockdown until 5 April.
Run by owners Maggie Murphy and Luke Anthony, Two Wild Geese is on the newer side of Galway business. They opened in 2018, and moved to their current store front on Cross Street in July of 2020.
The ethos for Two Wild Geese is to help and be able to provide a route and easy access to the market for small businesses.
As the lockdown continues, small artists also continue to share their work with local Galway markets and customers.
“We were completely on board with the lockdown in January and February as the numbers were so high. However, last week the absolute lack of regard that the government has had for business owners has really affected us. They don’t seem to have any concept of how badly we are all struggling,” said Maggie.
Since the government announced the extended lockdown on Tuesday, both Maggie and Luke have wrestled with their emotions.
“To be honest, the last week has been a struggle emotionally for the both of us. The amount of leaked misinformation from the Government angered us immensely, as it did with all businesses that were forced to shut their doors,” said Maggie.
One of the companies housed by Two Wild Geese that will be affected is Socksciety. The company creates socks for comfort and practicality, but with a unique twist. The designs range from sailboats, fishing, food, Irish rain, and bicycles.
The company has worked with the Irish Cancer Society, producing socks for Father’s Day and Daffodil Day. Both events had to be cancelled this year due to COVID-19.
On working with Socksciety Maggie said, “we love working with the Irish Socksciety, Alex and Joanna are two very inspirational and impressive women in business. They are always trying to be innovative and are fantastic communicators and extremely pleasant people to deal with.”
Since the first lockdown, Maggie and Luke realized they needed to adapt and change in order to stay afloat. This led to the renovation of the Two Wild Geese website, which included putting all their items on sale online.
“We are doing a Social Media takeover with Made in Galway on Friday 26th February which will feature videos and content from the shop and from some of our designers. We’ve never done anything like this before so we’re quite excited about it,” said Maggie.
Two Wild Geese will continue to keep pushing through these restrictions as they plan for a hopeful future.
“We have some new and exciting plans for the shop once we reopen so the planning is helping us stay focused and upbeat,” said Maggie.
Find more Galway related news at galwaypulse.com, or follow us on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
