Catalyst Residency with Create & Fire Station Artists’ Studios 2025

Catalyst Residency, offered in partnership between Create and Fire Station Artists’ Studios (FSAS), offers a socially engaged artist from an under-represented ethnic background a one-month residency in Dublin 1 during June 2025. The residency is intended as an artist-led incubation period which allows them to develop their practice and their networks with targeted support from the residency partners. The closing date for applications is the 7th April 2025.

About the Partnership and Catalyst Residency

In 2018, Create and the Fire Station Artists’ Studios formed a unique partnership to offer Catalyst Residency as part of the Artist in the Community Scheme, managed by Create, and the range of residencies offered by FSAS. Catalyst Residency is aligned with both Create and FSAS’s long standing commitment to collaborative, socially engaged arts practice; and to supporting communities and artists on the margins of society.

Since 2018, Catalyst Residency has opened a dedicated space for Create and FSAS to work with and support artists from under-represented ethnic backgrounds. Each year, Catalyst Residency responds to the specific needs of successful candidates, offering skills and opening relevant networks across the arts sector.

The residency offers artists the opportunity to be mentored by a range of practitioners; it is designed to enable the successful candidate to step away from their everyday responsibilities and to instead immerse themselves in a dedicated period of reflection, mentoring, peer-to-peer conversation and strategic networking.

We invite expressions of interest from artists with a track record of collaborative socially engaged arts practice.

What the Catalyst Residency offers

Catalyst Residency is artist led, and it will offer a residential living space for up to one month in June 2025 at FSAS in Dublin to facilitate the following:

• an experimental / developmental incubation 1 month period, based in an FSAS apartment
• time to network and engage with the wider field of collaborative socially engaged arts field in Dublin, as identified by the artist
• time to schedule focused work (meetings, research, events) in Dublin
• a space for reflection and planning for future project and partnership development
• an opportunity to engage with Dublin’s vibrant art scene (should the successful candidate live outside Dublin)
• Support from a dedicated Residency Coordinator who will engage with the successful candidate at critical points throughout the residency period, following a preparatory session with Create and FSAS
• A stipend of €1,200, with an additional budget for agreed expenses associated with the residency, for example travel to and from Residency

Please note that this is not a production residency, rather it is an opportunity for learning and unlearning, networking, research and discussion to generate new ideas and perspectives.

What are the expectations and conditions of Catalyst Residency

• We expect the Residency to be self-directed. Create, FSAS and the Residency Coordinator will organise one meeting with the successful applicant ahead of the residency to scope out the residency plan.
• After that, the artist’s main point of contact will be the Residency Coordinator.
• A final meeting with Create, FSAS and the Residency Coordinator will be organised with the awardee at the end of the residency.
• We are flexible in terms of the approach/use of the space available (ie. a hybrid approach), however we require applicants to clearly articulate why the residential space, and its particular location, is currently of added value to their practice.
• We invite applicants to reflect on Create and FSAS and how both organisations’ values, programmes, networks and partnerships are relevant to the development of your work.
• We require applicants to provide a clear articulation of their collaborative socially engaged arts practice, the preoccupations of the practice and the methodologies they employ when working with, and alongside, communities.

About FSAS Residential space

Catalyst Residency will take place over four weeks in June, based in Dublin’s FSAS, one of Ireland’s key residency and resource centres for visual arts. The allocated space is not suitable for more than 1 person as a living and working space. As a residential provider, accommodation in FSAS is a major part of the award, and it should be clearly articulated by the applicant why taking up this element is relevant to their current practice (even in a hybrid manner). Accommodation at FSAS includes a studio space with an open plan kitchen/living area, a partitioned-off bedroom and a private bathroom. This is not a wet space studio but has capacity for desk-based work.

Please see the “About FSAS” document, linked on this page, for additional information on the residency space including accessibility, facilities and appliances

Making an Expression of Interest

The Deadline for this Residency is 5pm, Monday 7th April 2025. Please see the Guidelines Document, linked on this page, for further details of the application process. All Expressions of Interest must be made using the online form. Applicants must read the guidelines document in full before beginning their application.

How can we support you?

We aim to make the application process accessible to all. We provide supports to remove barriers for artist applicants to this Residency. These may include translation from other languages or transcription of audio and video files. We will use all reasonable endeavours to assist applicants eligible under the conditions of the Residency. To find out more, please contact Create (info[at]create-ireland.ie) at least 2 weeks in advance of the closing date. If you feel your needs are not outlined here, please contact us and we will do our best to support you.

In 2024, we introduced audio guidelines to support applicants. These can be used in conjunction with the written text, or to assist those with additional access needs. These guidelines can be accessed alongside the written guidelines on the relevant application page.

The residency is funded through the Arts Council of Ireland’s Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create, and the Fire Station Artists’ Studios funded through the Visual Arts Department of the Arts Council of Ireland.  The award is delivered through a Create and Fire Station Artists’ Studios partnership.