Hyde Park Art Center and Sweet Water Foundation residency exchange program with IMMA and Create

Hyde Park Art Center and Sweet Water Foundation announce residency exchange program with Irish Museum of Modern Art and Create, connecting Chicago and Dublin through art and activism

Create with IMMA (the Irish Museum of Modern Art) in partnership with Hyde Park Art Center, and Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago are delighted to announce Seoidín O’Sullivan as the inaugural artist recipient of our Residency Exchange. This unique residency is designed to illuminate opportunities for, and links between, Irish and American socially-engaged artists and arts organizations as we partner with these institutions located in Dublin, Ireland.

This new collaboration is built on the legacy of Sweet Water Foundation’s participation in IMMA’s “A Fair Land” project in 2016 as well as, Create and Hyde Park Art Center’s partnership on the 2016-2017 exhibition “(Re)Public.” Working together for the first time on a joint cultural initiative, these four organizations are producing an immersive residency experience in Chicago and Dublin for incoming artists. Chicago is a city recognized worldwide as a vibrant hub for socially-engaged art practices, which are in direct conversation with cultural production in Dublin, a city with an extensive history of activism and social justice movements.

The residency affords artist Seoidín O’Sullivan the opportunity to connect with several upcoming programs at both Sweet Water Foundation and Hyde Park Art Center during the course of two visits to Chicago in 2017. Her first visit from June 2 to June 14 will focus on building relationships with local artists while continuing her research interests in shared community space, issues of land use, lost knowledge, social justice and biodiversity. She will also participate in the discussions on self-education related to the current exhibition, PUBLIC SCHOOL at Hyde Park Art Center. Returning in September 2017, O’Sullivan will participate with in the international Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) through Sweet Water Foundation and Hyde Park Art Center, an official anchor site for CAB. Alongside these projects, a Chicago artist will be selected to travel to Dublin in 2018, as Create and IMMA host a reciprocal artist exchange in alliance with this project.

About the artist: Seoidín O’Sullivan

Seoidín O’Sullivan (pronounced “Showdeen”) is a contemporary artist and educator. Her art projects are collaborative and focus on people joining together in action to protect and develop an aspect of their local commons. Her practice supports sustainable models within various ecological contexts and addresses issues of land use, lost knowledge, social justice and biodiversity. Creative output includes critical and creative pedagogic exchange, “communing” infrastructures, drawings, video, publications and walks. Her current projects include Hard/Graft (2017) with Studio 468, Common Ground which looks at reproductive labor and collectively grafts trees towards community orchards for Dublin and The Tree Line Project exploring the politics of trees in Ireland www.treeline.org.

Seoidín grew up in Kitwe, Zambia and later lived in Durban, South Africa where she completed a Bachelor Degree in Fine Art (2000). She has a Masters in Fine Art Media from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (2005- 2007) and Post Graduate Diplomas in Third Level Teaching and Learning (2010) and in International Development Studies (2004). She currently live in Dublin, Ireland and is an Art Lecturer at St Patricks College, DCU.

About the organisations

Sweet Water Foundation’s programs provide a vibrant environment for hands-on learning in a space that embodies the nexus between inspiration, education, and action on the South Side of Chicago. It is vital that young people understand how and why the city has evolved and how it may come to look in the future. As such, the goal of Sweet Water is to nurture a culture that facilitates the acquisition of learning, tools and collaborations necessary to bring about transformative change.

Create is the national development agency for collaborative arts in social and community contexts in Ireland. Their mission is to provide advice and support services to artists and arts organizations including advisory sessions, professional and learning development. Create seeks to foster current and future potential for collaboration between artists and communities, encouraging art projects that reflect the exciting ways in which collaborative arts represent a complex range of ideas and approaches.

IMMA (the Irish Museum of Modern Art), the Irish Museum of Modern Art was established by the Government of Ireland in 1990 as Ireland’s first national institution for the presentation and collection of modern and contemporary art. IMMA aims in all its activities to create for the public an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art. It achieves this through a dynamic and changing programme of exhibitions and education programmes based in its home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and working with partners nationally and internationally. As the national institution for contemporary art IMMA is committed to supporting artists’ work, and works with artists and partners to support the development, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland.

Founded in 1939, the Hyde Park Art Center has fulfilled its mission for more than 75 years; to stimulate and sustain the visual arts in Chicago. With an expansive reach and bold personality, the Art Center brings artists and communities together to support creativity at every level through making, learning about, seeing, and discussing art – all under one roof. Located in the demographically diverse neighbourhood of Hyde Park on Chicago’s South Side, the Art Centre has been intentionally focused on more deeply developing tomorrow artists, supporting today’s, and ensuring that Chicago’s artists and the community that supports them are as diverse as the city we live in. Free and open to the public seven days a week, the Art Centre served nearly 45,000 artists, collectors, neighbours, students and youth in 2015 through exhibitions, residencies, education, and public programs.