Artist Residency Award: Create and National Women’s Council 2023

Celebrating the past, imagining the future

Create and The National Women’s Council (NWC) are delighted to announce artist and activist Grace Dyas as the recipient of an Artist Residency Award.

2023 marks the 50^th anniversary of NWC, the leading representative organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland. Established in 1973 as the Council for the Status of Women, NWC today has over 190 member groups representing women in their diversity from across the island of Ireland and a large and growing community of individual supporters.

This anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements for women and women’s rights in Ireland and recognise the important, often invisible, contribution of women’s organisations and activists in bringing about this positive change. NWC are setting out to achieve this through a combination of creative approaches and engagements, discussion and debates as well as celebratory events and moments throughout the year. The Artist Residency Award is a key artistic strand of these activities. The residency is supported by funding from The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon.

Grace Dyas is an established artist and activist with nearly twenty years of experience making socially engaged art. She often engages with people who have survived trauma, making work collaboratively about social justice issues. Grace employs the mediums of live performance (theatre), film, installation and conceptual art, over the past decade creating landmark works of art which raise provocative questions about power, ethics, morality, class and social justice.

Grace says “I am only delighted to have been chosen to spend time and make work with the members of the National Women’s Council across the country exploring the last fifty years of feminist struggle on this island. My practice is focused on how art can hold opposing truths.  I look forward to making art that facilitates a celebration of the collaboration, critical thinking, and love that makes up the legacy of the National Women’s Council on their 50^th anniversary”.

Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council, says “We are delighted to announce Grace Dyas as our Artist in Residency as part of our 50 years celebrations. This project will be a unique opportunity to engage creatively with our broad and diverse membership, reflecting on the achievements for women’s rights and equality over the past five decades and imagining our feminist future for the next 50 years to come.”

Damien McGlynn, Director of Create, says “Create is proud to be collaborating with the National Women’s Council as part of their 50^th anniversary celebrations. The opportunity for an experienced socially-engaged artist to work with the membership of such a significant national organisation is incredibly exciting and we are delighted to have made the award to Grace Dyas. Grace brings a fantastic track record of work which delves deep into the way we think and the way we connect with each other. We are looking forward to supporting the artist in engaging with the diverse membership of NWC and sharing the stories that emerge.”

The residency will take place during the 50^th anniversary year of the National Women’s Council in 2023. The artist in residence will be embedded within NWC and work collaboratively with member organisations to identify the subjects and issues that matter most to them. There is no prescribed output at the outset of the residency as the emphasis is on providing the artist and member organisations with the time and space to hold exploratory conversations and see what emerges in an organic process.

About the Residency

Create firmly believes that, by working together, artists and communities can purposefully explore how collaborative arts engage in distinct, relevant and powerful ways with the urgent social, cultural and political issues of our times. Create believes that by facilitating wider participation, collaborative arts expands and diversifies public engagement with the arts, enriching its contribution to society.

This Residency is aimed at a professional artist(s) who has a track record and experience of working in the field of collaborative socially engaged arts practice. Applicant artist(s) should demonstrate the ability to connect to and navigate the complexities of working in the areas of equality and social justice. We particularly welcome applications from artists who have experience of working with women’s grassroots organisations, arts and media, academia, health and social justice. Proposals should consider diverse ways to engage with both community and audience.

It is expected that the selected artist will engage with the NWC membership which includes organisations from diverse backgrounds, sectors and locations across the island of Ireland, making use of space and liaison support by NWC. Create and NWC acknowledge that this is a large network, and value will be given to depth of engagement over breadth of engagement. This residency facilitates time for the artist(s) to focus and engage with the membership in depth, as opposed to a large-scale artistic output.

Create and NWC will support the artist(s) by creating an inclusive and intersectional space where art making, co-production, learning and exchange form the basis of relationships built between artist and community.

It is envisaged that the NWC’s feminist gathering in Dublin in November 2023 will present an opportunity to showcase and highlight the Residency. It is anticipated that the artist will oversee (with a group of members) an appropriate preparation and sharing of the work undertaken by the artist and NWC members during the residency with the support of the Residency partners.

The Residency is intended to run from April 2023 for 9 months and has a fixed artist’s fee of €15,000 (inclusive of insurance and VAT). There is an additional budget of approximately €5,000 to cover expenses, travel, materials and production.

NWC will offer desk space, access to meeting spaces and a key liaison person to the artist as well as the facilitation of engagement with its members across the island of Ireland. Create will provide its expert advice and support for the selected artist(s) as guidance in the engagement and presentation of the work undertaken with NWC and its members. Both Create and NWC commit to regular progress meetings with the artist(s), and providing administrative support on finance, communications and production.

The residency is part-funded by The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon.

Create is the national development agency for collaborative arts. Our work initiates cross-sectoral national and international partnerships which support artists and communities to co-create work of depth, ambition and excellence. Our mission is to lead the development of collaborative arts practice by enabling artists and communities to create exceptional art together. Create believes that by working together, artists and communities can purposefully explore how collaborative arts engage in distinct, relevant and powerful ways with the urgent social, cultural and political issues of our times.

The National Women’s Council is the leading national representative organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland, founded in 1973. The NWC has over 190 member groups and a large and growing community of individual supporters. The ambition of the National Women’s Council is an Ireland where every woman enjoys true equality and no woman is left behind. This ambition shapes and informs their work, both nationally and internationally, to protect and advance women’s and girls’ rights.