The first Claremorris Open Exhibition was held in the school gym in St. Colman's College in 1978. It certainly was an interesting time in which to introduce such a concept to Claremorris as the spirit of community and co-operation in the town was at an all time high. It is important to note that the only gallery in Connaught at that time was in Galway and it was unheard of that artists would exhibit their works outside of the main cities. The author Dermot Healy, who was short-listed for the Booker Prize once said that when he went to live in Belfast in the mid-eighties, he was amazed to hear a group of artists discussing what they were sending to a major exhibition in what he considered to be the back end of Ireland; County Mayo - that was the first time he had heard of Claremorris. Each year a growing number of people attend the exhibition and while it is hard to quantify, there is certainly a spin-off for the town. The exhibition annually attracts widespread media attention. It is featured in the local and national press and has been featured on BBC TV and radio; on UTV and on RTE radio and television. In 1998 the committee took a change in direction and made a departure from the traditional gallery based exhibition, opting to host a site based multi-media exhibition. For this exhibition artists were given a dossier providing information. This proved to be successful and the committee have continued with this format.