09/09/2011
Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.
Empty Buildings Abound, but finally someone knows what to do about it
A group of emerging artists have come together to transform a building 'The Big Picture' in Tallaght challenging our perceptions of what’s possible with all that the boom has left behind.
LAUNCH: An exhibition of their resulting work will open on September 16th, 2011,
6 – 8pm.
The artists are participants on Creative Campus, a programme that provides an opportunity for emerging artists from different disciplines to produce work collaboratively for a space in Tallaght. The space, called the Big Picture, is a technology-based community information centre run by South Dublin County Council.
The participants are being mentored by support artists Matt Green, Joan Healy and Stuart Sloan and have been invited to use the resources available in the Big Picture, particularly the technologies it contains, and to explore the site’s physicality, use and significance.
Work created involves mixed-media installation, animation, video, sound and performance art.
Creative Campus is an initiative of South Dublin County Council’s Arts Office and Tallaght Community Arts and is supported by the Arts Council. This new initiative seeks to provide emerging artists with the opportunity to collaborate with peers on a site-specific project, receive mentoring from established artists and further develop their artistic practice.
On the genesis of the project, South Dublin County Council’s Youth Arts Coordinator explains,
“After one finishes training, developing artists often feel they are suddenly in a void, isolated, where it can be difficult to find opportunities to work with other artists to further one’s practice. The model of collaboration and mentoring established via Creative Campus is an attempt to explore ways in which to re-address this.
Further, the project also attempts to investigate the ways in which young and emerging artists might have greater access to and find better uses for vacant spaces—this was a major focus of discussion at the Arts Council’s FYI: Art-Youth-Culture event held in March 2010 with young people and policy makers.
As a partner in Creative Campus with Tallaght Community Arts, we’re delighted to explore the potential ways in which young and emerging artists might be able to utilise such spaces and better understand what supports they might need to do so.â€
Joan Healy, support artist for Creative Campus, has described her experience on the project:
"Working as part of Creative Campus, I found it was a fantastic opportunity to mentor on a programme that supports local emerging artists, facilitates a free creative collaborative space with materials and equipment for them to develop self-directed work."
Katherine Atkinson, who works in Professional Development for Create – the national development agency for collaborative arts stated about the programme:
“Mentoring is an exciting and developmental process for both mentee and mentor. It is exhilarating for emerging artists to share artistic ideas and to test them out with professional support - mentors also find this process stimulating within their own arts practice. This unique experience enhances the Big Picture. â€
The processes involved in creating work have promoted interesting debates on how to develop a positive future for the numerous vacant buildings in the area surrounding Tallaght’s Cultural Quarter, near the Tallaght LUAS stop.
Participants will be working together on video, sound, digital and mixed media projects from August 29th to September 15th.
They will to hold tours and talks during the week the exhibition is open from September 16th. A series of workshops targeted at transition year students from Tallaght schools will introduce 2nd level students to the artists’ work.
The exhibition closes on Thursday, September 22nd.
Dates:
Creative Campus working period: August 29th – September 16th
Exhibition Opening: Friday, September 16th, 6 – 8pm
Exhibition duration and hours:
Saturday, September 17th 10 am – 4:30pm
Monday, September 19th to Thursday September 22nd, 10am – 4:30pm
The exhibition is not open on Sundays
Information about the mentoring artists:
Matt Green is a Sound Artist who has recently completed a PhD at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast. Matt has exhibited work at numerous festivals and conferences throughout the UK and further afield. This includes ISEA 2009 (International Symposium for Electronic Arts), Dislocate 2008 (Yokohama/Tokyo, Japan), Inclusiva.Net 2008 (Madrid, Spain) and FutureSonic (Manchester, UK). Matt was recently commissioned by Belfast City Council and PLACE to produce six site-specific sound installations for six sites in the city of Belfast. This work was titled Resounding Rivers (2010) and sought to reintroduce the sound of Belfast’s buried rivers into the city’s streets.
Stuart Sloan has both a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Film from Queen’s University Belfast, and co-founded filmmaking company X-Ray Eye Films. In 2008, Stuart directed the documentary short Counterweight, which deals with the changing face of Belfast, and was shown at various festivals and cinemas in Ireland. Stuart has been commissioned to create gallery based video and installation art for several Irish art galleries, including Blackstaff is Belfast, a mobile sound and video work that showed as part of the International Symposium for Electronic Arts (ISEA) in 2009.
Joan Healy is a visual artist based in Dublin. In her work she combines performance, sound, video, and interactive technologies, examining gender roles and the notion of the abject in society. She has a B.A. in Fine Art from the Dublin Institute of Technology and an M.A. in the Art in the Digital World course from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Her work has also been exhibited both nationally and internationally in exhibitions such as Transnatural, Amsterdam; Biorhythm in the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin and Eyebeam, New York; the St Etienne City of Design Biennale, France; Landmark, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; STRP art and technology festival, Eindhoven; Peacock Visual Arts Centre, Aberdeen; Stadtbad, Berlin; Occupy Space, Limerick; Shunt, London, UK; The Eclectic Tech Carnival, Umea, Sweden; G126, Galway; Space Delawab, Belfast; and IMOCA, Dublin.
She has lectured and given workshops at universities and art foundations including the International Symposium of Electronic Art ’09, Belfast, the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, the University of Umea, Sweden, and Mztech in London.
Information about Organisations:
Tallaght Community Arts (TCA) is a pro-active arts development organisation working with local communities, schools and youth groups to activate arts programmes in line with the needs of the wider Tallaght community: geographically, culturally and socially.
TCA’s work focuses on participatory arts, encouraging people of all ages to be involved in the making of art. Our work embraces gallery-based art, site-specific performance, open-air events and collaborative arts commissions.
Founded in July 1996, over the last decade, and in more than one location, the organisation has worked with countless artists as well as involving hundreds of individuals and community groups in Tallaght in the creation of artistic work.
TCA is anchor tenant of the new South Dublin Arts Centre, Rua Red since 2009.
TCA’s aim is to work in partnership with local and national agencies in a cross-sector approach to sustainable community development, which puts people and culture at the centre.
South Dublin County Council Arts Office is committed to building for the future by supporting the development of creative people and communities through the Arts. The core belief of this service is that arts experiences enrich people’s lives. Provision and support of high quality arts experiences are central to the service.
This is realised through provision of arts services, programmes and events in South Dublin County. The Arts Office has placed particular emphasis on developing arts programmes with and in communities. These include programmes in film, visual arts, dance, music and theatre. Young people are also a particular focus and in early 2008 a Youth Arts Co-ordinator was appointed to implement and consolidate youth arts programmes in the county.
The Arts Office produces arts events and supports local arts organisations and venues including Alternative Entertainments, Civic Theatre, Tallaght Community Arts Centre and the County Arts Centre and many smaller arts organisations and artists through its Arts Grants and Bursaries.
The Arts Office actively initiates and develops partnerships, with the aim of developing long term sustainable programmes.
Contact:
Victoria Durrer
Youth Arts Coordinator
South Dublin County Council
01 414 9000 ext 4606
vdurrer@sdublincoco.ie
www.creativecampusproject.com