AIC Scheme 2022 Round One: Successful Recipients

Congratulations to all successful applicants to the AIC Scheme (Round One) in 2022, who come from a range of art forms and contexts.

Read more about each recipient, and their planned course of work, below.

Research and Development Award

Artist Conor Courtney will work with Taplin’s Fields Community Garden, utilizing scientific techniques and tools via workshops to reveal the hidden world of microbes to the community, and in doing so, re-frame the relationship of the community to environment and place.

Interdisciplinary artist Nadia Tamerji will engage with residents of Globe House, Sligo, a diverse community of refugees and those in need of international protection. Nadia will facilitate creative sessions exploring the needs of the community, to increase and deepen participation by residents of Globe House in wider social and cultural events, and build their confidence through engagement.

Artist Thérése Murphy and Abbey Heritage group will collaborate on a visual arts project exploring community perceptions of rural waterways. Focus will look at biodiversity in the river to create a series of works with the potential also to engage with local National Schools on a collaborative educational piece.

Visual Artist Tomasz Madajczak will engage Happiness Ensemble West Cork in a R&D programme focusing on bridging communities of the West Cork mainland and islands (Sherkin, Cape Clear). The groups and individuals will map their experiences of isolation, its consequence and potential for change. The participants will be encouraged to exchange their experiences through sound, photography, movement, conversation, storytelling and video.

Research and Development Award with Mentoring

Artist Alan James Burns will collaborate with Tin Smithers within the Traveller Community, and the Mental Health Initiative in Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, to reimagine the traditional concept of the ‘grub box.’ (traditionally used by the Traveller Community to keep important family items safe). He will work with mentor, artist Seamus Nolan, to foster collaborative relationships with the Traveller Community & Pavee Point, using creative technology to develop mental health skill-sets and ensure that Traveller voices are heard on issues of emotional resilience and community wellbeing.

Photographer Barialai Khoshhual will work with the Open Doors Initiative to capture the lived experience of Afghans who fled to Ireland due to the takeover by the Taliban in 2021, to engage with the community and capture how they have retained their culture and beliefs in a new country and how they have changed, yet remained true to their culture. Barialai will receive mentoring support by photographer Dragana Jurisic.

Playwright and performance poet Carrie Barrett will build on previous work with St Mary’s Park Young Mothers, to explore spoken word and rap as a means of self-expression. This will involve workshops towards the development of a collective script. Carrie will receive mentorship support by playwright Liam McCarthy.

Multi-disciplinary artist Ita Morrissey will engage with Open Circle Arts Collective to create a collaborative work in progress presentation exploring the idea of freedom and sovereignty. This work will take the form of facilitated workshops with guidance and mentoring by theatre-maker Annie Ryan.

Multimedia artist Martina Passman will work with the Western Traveller and Intercultual Development Centre, Tuam (Bru Bhride), to research and investigate the place of the Traveller Woman in Society today. The Beady pocket will be used as an initial communication point, to begin a collaborative process with the community.  Martina will be supported in this with mentoring by artist Aoife Barrett.

Visual artist Tara Carroll will collaborate with Older People Community of Kildare/ Older Voices Kildare, researching the act of pilgrimage and exploring memory, heritage and devotional rituals to access collective consciousness. This will involve discussions, art workshops and pilgrimages to sacred sites to exchange oral histories and collectively devise the evolution of the project. Tara will receive mentorship by artist Jesse Jones.

Recent Graduate Research and Development Award

Performance Artist and recent NCAD graduate Lauren Kelly will work with Socialist Feminist Activist group ROSA, exploring contemporary art projects that are relevant to making activist-based art, and their application via activities examining misogyny and oppression. Lauren will receive mentoring support by artist John Conway.

Project Realisation Award

Seid na bhFear and artist Tommy Casby (Co Galway) are cooperating to commemorate children who died and were secretly buried in the An Cheathrú Rua area, following a research and development phase. Situated in a prominent location at Loch an Mhuilinn in the centre of An Cheathrú Rua, this memorialising statue will refer to Clann Lir, welcoming home the banished children. Mentoring support will be offered by artist Ríonach Ní Néill

‘Cocooning: Catch a Breath’ is a collaborative art project that aims to better understand the mental health impacts of COVID-19; a collaboration between Mental Health Community Group at UCC and artist Catarina Araujo. This project will involve the co-creation of cocoons, to be exhibited at The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion in Spring 2023. These cocoons will provide safe spaces to reflect on individual and common experiences of Covid-19, as well as a creative conceptual space for creative workshops to take place.

Panel

Megs Morley, Head of Visual Art at Galway Arts Centre
Marie Brett, Visual Artist
Tobi Omoteso, Dancer and Choreographer*
Joan Sheehy, Arts Council (Chair)

Observer

Karen Aguiar, Dancer and Director of Go Dance for Change

In attendance

Jane O’Rourke, Create
Ann O’Connor, Arts Council

*Due to unforseen events, Aine Crowley, Programme Manager Arts and Engagement stepped in for Tobi Omoteso as he was unable to attend