An information and briefing meeting for artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, artistic directors, curators, creative  producers, arts and culture groups, community groups.

Wednesday, October 19th 2016, 10.30am-1.30pm
Seminar Room, RUA RED, Tallaght

The aim of the Briefing Day is to offer a wide range of information and innovative examples of the possibilities in public art commissioning.  The Briefing Day will host a series of short talks by a diverse selection of arts practitioners with experience in various areas of presentation and collaboration both in Ireland and Internationally. These presentations will aid and inspire potential applicants to apply for this exciting opportunity.

Programme

10.30am - 11am - Audience arrive 
Coffee/ tea and biscuits

11 am - Introduction 
Aoife Tunney - Co-Curator of IN CONTEXT 4 - IN OUR TIME 
Rosaleen Dwyer - Heritage Officer, South Dublin County Council to give county context

ARTS PRACTITIONERS PRESENTATIONS 
Emmett Scanlon - Architecture, the Public Realm and Temporality - Architect and lecturer in the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy at UCD 
Junk Ensemble - Contemporary Dance Responds - Choreographers and dancers 
Caroline Cowley - Public Art Programming - Curator & Public Art Coordinator, Fingal County Council
Rhona Byrne + Yvonne Mc Guinness - People and Performance - Visual Artists 
George Higgs - Music Composition, Collaboration and Community - Composer and Musician 
Annette Moloney - Changing Landscapes in Public Art - Curator & Public Art Specialist

12.20pm - Break for refreshments 

12.40pm - 1.30pm - Questions and Answers: 
Open out to the floor for Questions and answers session with audience and panel of speakers.

Practitioners Biographies

Aoife Tunney is an independent curator, project manager and arts advisor based in Dublin. She is currently co-curator of IN CONTEXT 4, South Dublin County Council's public art programme (2016-2019), and is co-project manager / co-curator of a major public art commission for the Central Bank of Ireland (2016-2018). Additionally she is the co-curator of Illuminations Gallery at NUI Maynooth and Curator of the Art and Ecology Programme for Dublin City Council in 2017. In 2014 she was the Artistic Director of Vestibule an outdoor public art exhibition that included a satellite programme of exhibitions, events and workshops. The Arts Council of Ireland selected her for the Curator in Residence programme in 2013 in conjunction with Wicklow County Council, for which she commissioned and presented 6 new Public Art events and works in the county. In 2012 she was funded by Culture Ireland as the Artistic Director of All Humans Do, a twelve-person group show that travelled to White Box Gallery in New York and The Model in Sligo.

Emmett Scanlon is a registered architect focused on the social purpose of architecture. His practice includes the design of buildings, academic research, architectural education, policy development, curation and criticism.
He graduated from University College Dublin, (MArchSc) in 2000 and was appointed Lecturer in Architecture in 2006 at University College Dublin. Emmett was Project Director in Grafton Architects from 1998-2006 and Director of CAST architecture from 2006-2014. Emmett has  taught in University of Ulster and is currently external examiner at University of Limerick. Emmett is a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield. He is Irish correspondant for A10 the journal of New European Architecture and is the current Architecture Adviser to the Arts Council of Ireland.

Junk Ensemble is an award winning Dublin based Dance Company founded by joint Artistic Directors and twin sisters Megan Kennedy and Jessica Kennedy in 2004. Previous Artists in Residence at Tate Britain, the company have won Best Production Award, Best Lighting Design, Best Performer, Culture Ireland Touring Award, Excellence and Innovation Award and are listed a Sunday Times Highlight. Junk Ensemble’s work continues to tour nationally and internationally. Their productions are often created in collaboration with artists from other disciplines to produce a rich mix of visual and performance styles that seeks to challenge the traditional audience performer relationship. This approach has led to productions being created in non-traditional or found spaces as well as more conventional theatre spaces. Productions include Walking Pale (GPO Witness History Commission/Dublin Dance Festival 2016), It Folds, a joint production with Broken talkers (Edinburgh Festival 2016/Mayfest Bristol 2016/Dublin Fringe, Abbey Theatre 2015), Dusk Ahead (NYC La MaMa Moves Festival 2015/National Tour 2015/Dublin Theatre Festival 2013/Kilkenny Arts Festival 2013), The Falling Song (8 venue UK & National Tour 2014/Belfast Festival 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2012), Bird with Boy (UK Tour 2016/Dublin Theatre Festival 2012/Dublin Fringe Festival 2011), Sometimes We Break (Tate Commission 2012), Five Ways to Drown (National Tour 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2010), Pygmalian Revisited (Áix en Provence Festival Commission 2010), Drinking Dust (2008), and The Rain Party (2007). Junk Ensemble completed the short film Blind Runner (2013), commissioned by Dance Ireland. Junk Ensemble are Project Artists, an initiative of Project Arts Centre.

Rhona Byrne is a visual artist based in Dublin. Rhona makes sculptural objects and spatial environments combining sculpture, performance and processes of participation that explore a negotiation of object, place and social practice. Rhona’s work is in the collection of The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Fingal County Council, Facebook, Microsoft, Beaumount Hospital, NUI Maynooth, The Rollercoaster society of US and private collections. Recent selected projects and exhibitions include, Embodied Encounters,  Beall Centre for Art and Technology, Irvine California USA, A Fair Land, Grizedale Arts at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Huddle Tests, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, TULCA Festival of Art, Facebook Air program, Dublin; On that Note, Heart of Glass, Liverpool; Uillinn, Skibbereen, Moving Thresholds, National Gallery of Ireland; Verksmi∂jan, Hjalteyri, Iceland; Cowper Care home, Dublin;  Its All up in the Air, Norfolk and Norwich Arts Festival, Uk; Bolthole, Open Studio, Tate Modern and Tate Britain, IMMA.

Yvonne Mc Guinness is a visual artist based in Dublin. Her work begins with an interest in embodied experience of place and re-imagining the everyday by creating projects that create surreal and dynamic moments of interaction and connection to place, time and communities.  I make immersive work, which is collaborative and generally temporary. The work is often a catalyst to generate other narratives for its participants. Yvonne has an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. Her practice encompasses performance, video, photography, sewing, writing, sculpture and context specific installations. She also works as a curator and directs music videos. Recent projects and public art commissions include Moving Mountains, Wishing Well, Bridget Cleary We Won’t Tell, Thurles Junction Festival, 2016, Moving Monuments, Commissioned by Fingal County Council, 2016, Hive, St Gobnait’s Well, Dun Chaoin, Feile Na Bealtaine Festival, Co Kerry, 2016. 

George Higgs is a composer whose work includes opera, symphony, compositions for small ensemble, music for experimental theatre, work for installation and a number ofHIGGSTRUMENTS, which he has designed for the performance of certain compositions. His music has been performed across Ireland, in Russia and the United States and he has received numerous awards and honors including a grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Director's Prize from the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, numerous Arts Council awards and a MacDowell Fellowship. He holds a Masters degree in music technology from Trinity College Dublin and is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland and is currently completing a PHD at Trinity College Dublin. Projects and Public Art works include The Great War Signal Corps - a collaboration between George Higgs, Tonnta Music (directed by Robbie Blake), The National Museum of Ireland and Poetry Ireland, 2015-2018.  Up the Downbeat commissioned by Wicklow County Council under Per Cent for Art Scheme, 2014, The Lost and Found Assembly, Commissioned by Dublin City Council Public Art Programme 2013 and Door Commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland, 2012.

Annette Moloney is a socially engaged curator and collaborator based in Limerick. Her arts practice includes exhibitions, critical writing, talks, artist’s professional development and mentoring projects as well as public art commissions.  She works with the Arts Council of Ireland as the Per Cent for Art Scheme Adviser.  She is currently Curator in Residence along with Curator Maeve Mulrennan in County Cavan.   For 2015 she also received the Arts Council of Ireland Curator in Residence Award to develop endurance | resilience, a Curated @ Source project which examines the links between sport and human effort in contemporary art located at the Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. A Fine Art graduate from Limerick School of Art & Design and the National College of Art & Design, she has completed a Master in Visual Arts Practice at IADT (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology), Dublin, specialising in Curatorial Practice.

Caroline Cowley is a curator and Public Art Co-ordinator with Fingal County Council. Since her appointment to Fingal County Council she has commissioned and produced a series of high-profile projects with artists Mark Garry, Brian Duggan, Christine Mackey, Martina Coyle, Garrett Phelan, Aileen Lambert, Dan Dubowitz, Fearghus O’ Chonchuir, Dennis McNulty, Rhona Byrne & Yvonne McGuinness along with associated publications and talks such as Commissions+ an International Public Art Symposium, 2012 and Local Authority,2015. Her remit within the Fingal County Council’s Arts Office extends to public art policy and programming. Curated exhibitions and projects include Amharc Fhine Gall, It’s All in the Detail, Draiocht, 2008; Not in Alphabetical Order, Farmleigh, Dublin, 2008; Bright Beginnings, Draiocht, 2009; and the more recent Resort Residency/Resort Revelations Residency and Programme at Lynders Mobile Home Park in Portrane. Caroline holds a BA in History of Art from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from University College Dublin, and a MA in curatorial practice IADT (MAVIS). She is currently the chair of Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin.

For more information contact: info@incontext4.ie