Date set for coin mosaic world record attempt for Tullamore Arts Centre

Organisers are this month hoping to get perhaps €6,000 closer to the community fundraising target of €200,000 that will make the Tullamore Community Arts Centre a reality, while at the same time breaking a world record.

Plans are afoot to create the biggest coin mosaic in the world on May 25 in Tullamore, with all coins collected then going into the coffers for the arts centre in a bid to raise the final €35,000 needed.

Explaining the project Fionnuala Corrigan said the current world record mosaic measures 26 metres square. The plan for May 25 is to burst past that record with a 30 metres square mosaic, created by local school children.

Some 15 primary schools in Tullamore and the surrounding area have come onboard with the project, and locals are now being asked to donate coins to local schools and other drop off points including Midland Books, Supermacs and Aras an Chontae for the project.

Fionnuala reckons approximately 60,000 coins will be needed to create the mosaic, and she said that should more be collected plans will be expanded to accommodate them. “We hope we’ll have reached our target close to the date,” she said. “If we can extend of course we’ll hold the record for longer.”

The project, which is expected to take the whole day, will be recorded and photographed as evidence that a record has been broken. The mosaic itself will take the form of an oak tree made of brown coins and a background of coins of other colours. A number of local school children will be invited to represent their school by helping to complete the mosaic.

All denominations of coin are welcome to the effort. “We’re looking at it more in terms of coins,” Fionnuala said. “It is about bringing in money, but it’s also about involving more people in the development of the arts centre.”