We are delighted to announce the first of our Regular Contributors for Practice.ie, who will be blogging about their practice on a regular basis from September 2011. The aim of inviting a number of Regular Contributors to Practice.ie is to present a more comprehensive overview of current arts practice across a range of disciplines and contexts in Ireland and beyond. By sharing insights into their ongoing practice with children and young people, the regular contributors can share issues and challenges around current practice with the wider community.
The first eight Regular Contributors are:
Marie Brett is a visual artist with a Masters Degree/1st class BA in fine art/textiles from Goldsmith’s College, London University whose work’s been commissioned/ held in public collections both nationally and internationally including The Health Service Executive, The National Health Service, The Vocational Education Committee, University College Cork plus numerous Local Authorities in Ireland/UK. Her practice spans the use of digital media, sculpture and installation. Interested in site specificity, she seeks means for dialogue/collaboration to inform/influence her work. With over twenty years experience of participatory/collaborative arts practice, she’s received awards for her work from The Arts Council, Create, Culture Ireland and several Local Authorities and guest lectured at NCAD, CIT and CSN.
Siobhán Clancy works across a variety of contexts in schools, teacher-training institutes, hospitals and youth groups in rural and urban areas. Through arts and digital media, her practice aims to advocate creativity, critical thinking and collective empowerment through self-expression and collaborative, inclusive production methods. In 2008 she coordinated the youth programme for Youth, Media, Democracy Conference at DIT supported by Léargas Youth in Action Fund. In the same year, Siobhán was jointly awarded the Marion Rollins INTO/Heritage Council of Ireland Education Heritage Award for an intergenerational digital media heritage project. Siobhán continues to work with youth and community groups, contributing to local, national and international programmes through The Digital Hub, Dublin and recently, Mayfield Arts Centre, Cork.
Louise Costelloe, a graduate of the M.A. in Modern Drama, University College Dublin and the Laban Community Dance Leader Courses in Kildare, is a community dance practitioner, performer and choreographer. Louise spent two years as Dance Artist in Residence for Wigtownshire in Scotland developing dance programmes for young people and screened her first dance film "Shade" in March 2008. Recent work has also included performing in "Sweet Love" for Janis Claxton Dance. Louise is currently Dancer in Residence for South Dublin County Council, Artistic Director of Animotion Youth Dance Company and Creative Director of the NOISEmoves Youth Dance Festival. Louise’s work with young dancers mixes modern dance styles in an energetic and dynamic style and encourages creativity and dance making, with a focus on choreographic skills. She teaches movement and choreography workshops in Ireland and the UK for dance and theatre practitioners, working recently with the Natural Voice Practitioners Network to develop ideas for movement and singing.
Julie trained in the sculpture department of the Slade School of Art, graduating in the late eighties. Since then she has worked in numerous participatory arts contexts, beginning with Cork community Artlink in the early nineties. In the early noughties she became more involved with childrens’ projects through residencies with Kids’ Own including Multimedia Maps, Trading Places and The Sodacakeville with Limerick’s Northside Learning Hub. Her projects are often self initiated and she has carried out several participatory projects under the per cent for Art scheme. She has held residency positions in schools with the Arts Council and with the Crafts Council. She has also developed projects with children under the Arts in Context Scheme with Cork City Council. Since 2004, Julie has been working with children on animation projects, involving multiple media, contexts and experimentation with audio and visual narrative techniques. Her work with Gallery Education began with Triskel Arts Centre in 1999, where her focus was on encouraging access to the gallery and developing outreach programmes for children and families in libraries and schools. She has been a member of the Crawford Gallery’s Artist Education Panel since 2000. Recently she has been developing projects in the gallery with the Arts and Minds Mental Health Group. Apart from her work with groups Julie spends time in her studio and is currently working on some life size alter egos, which are heading for Beijing in 2012.
Ann Henderson is an artist living and working on Rathlin Island off the north coast of Ireland. Since 1990 she has been investing, locally and internationally, in both her solo and collaborative practice.
"I am committed to an ongoing investigation into man’s relationship with the natural environment and I attempt to elicit human response as part of that process. Central to the work is a particular focus upon the evidential passage of time. Manifestations of patterns in time become as apparent as patterns in space.
The impulse to investigate is supported by the ongoing activity of collecting, ordering and re-ordering thought and material. This is coupled with the desire for further analysis. The process of work is as important as the production of any artefact - perhaps a reflection of the processes of nature in continuous cycles of growth, decay and regeneration. Work is often spontaneous and site specific in nature, incorporating both tangible and digital materials and processes."
Eva Kelly has a background in Visual Communication and Illustration. Since graduating from NCAD 2001 she has been working in Youth Arts in Clondalkin.
"My work involves planning and delivering high quality arts based programmes with a social learning aspect for young people. These include youth arts projects over a number of weeks and shorter workshops. The collaboration with young people is designed to meet their needs and importantly to encourage young people to engage in the arts. Currently I am completing the final year in Masters in Visual Arts Education in NCAD where I am looking at how young people’s involvement in the arts can be transformative."
Niamh Lawlor is a founder and Artistic Director of Púca Puppets since 1997. With a bachelor of Design from the National College of Art and Design and a Masters in Theatre Direction from the University of Hull, she has extensive experience as a maker, performer, director and designer for Púca and other theatre companies (The Abbey, Team, The Ark, Upstate, etc). She works as a collaborative and participative artist in many contexts with work bridging the visual and theatre arts. She is a member of Dublin City Council’s Artist Panel and for many years was also a member of the Artist Panel of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. She recently was an artist on Helium’s Puppet Portal project.
Fiona Whelan(IRE, 1968) lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied Environmental Design in Dublin and scenography (MA) in Utrecht. In her artistic practice she focuses on community arts and educational projects. For this purpose she founded Dream Depot in 2008. She often works with socially or culturally disadvantaged youth, as for instance in projects in East Vlaardingen, Kildare and North Amsterdam. She combines her own observations with the dreams and thoughts of the youth and children, who use photography, model building, scenario writing and various other artistic techniques to develop their ideas. Together with Susann Rittermann she developed ’When does the day begin’, (2008 - 2010) an artistic and philosophical exploration of daily objects, realized as an art project by pupils of a primary school over a span of two years. More recently, she has been working with children’s book writer, Victoria Farkas, in a project, which enables children to write, illustrate and design their own book. She occasionally works as a set designer, collaborated with Hillary Blake Firestone and Artisjok020. She also was one of the original founders of Nairobits, the webdesignschool in the slums in Nairobi.
