The 16 x 16: Next Generation bursaries are awarded to innovative young artists, in a special initiative of the Arts Council and the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme, in recognition of the role of artists in the events of 1916.
Artists, working across visual arts, music, literature, film, dance, theatre and circus, have been awarded 16 bursaries to support their practice and their ambition as rising stars of the contemporary arts in Ireland. Each artist will receive an award of €12,500 and is invited to participate in a collective week-long residency in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annamakerrig from 3rd to 10th April 2016
At a special event in Áras an Uachtaráin today, eighteen young recipients of the Next Generation artist bursaries met with President Michael D. Higgins to share their ideas and plans for next year. President Michael D. Higgins highlighted the role that artists have played, and continue to play, in the crafting of Irish society. The President spoke of the centrality of creativity and culture to the concept of democracy and to people's right to participate fully in society.
Referencing the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the President highlighted that writers, poets, musicians, artists and performers have reflected the history of the republic and continue to play a significant role in interpreting and contextualising the events and stories which make up Irish history.
The bursary is specifically designed to support professional artists from across Ireland, who are at an early stage in their career, and whose practice is innovative, ambitious and original.
Minster for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys added: “2016 will be a very special year for Irish people when we reflect on the events of 1916 and the impact that this moment had on the development of our nation state. Artists were at the core of that significant moment in Ireland’s history and I am particularly pleased that Irish artists, and in particular, our young artists, will take centre stage in our centenary programme next year. I am really excited by the range and diversity of young artists who have been awarded these very special bursaries and I wish them a most rewarding and exciting year ahead as they embark upon the next stage of their artistic journeys.”
Orlaith McBride, Director of the Arts Council said: “We are delighted to be here celebrating with these wonderful artists. These awards offer artists valuable time to cultivate their artistic voice, develop their practice and pursue their vision. I look forward to seeing the work of the Next Generation.”
16 x 16: Next Generation Bursary recipients
Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty use performance, video, sound installation and storytelling, along with a detailed research process to convey visions of transience and resistance. They are currently building a body of work around the introduction of Daylight Saving Time to Ireland in 1916 in order to engage the public in a critical examination of contemporary Irish society. Recent exhibitions of their work include: Foaming at the Mouth 6, visual art spoken word event, Amsterdam, 2015, curated by Tracy Hanna and Emer Lynch; Amid the Deepening Shades, self-initiated group exhibition at the Deer Park Hotel, Howth, 2014, and Wound with a Tear, offsite solo exhibition at Trinity College Dublin in association with The Douglas Hyde Gallery, curated by Michael Hill, 2014. Ruth and Niamh have developed and exhibited over twenty projects together since 2011. They were awarded a Digital Media Residency from Firestation studios in 2011 and an Arts Council visual arts bursary in 2013. Ruth Clinton graduated from the Master's course Art in the Contemporary World at NCAD with a first-class honours degree in 2013. Both artists received a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from NCAD in 2010.
Web:www.ruthandniamh.info
Dylan Coburn Gray is a writer based in Dublin. He holds a bachelor's degree in music from Trinity College Dublin (graduated 2014). His first plays were written for Dublin Youth Theatre; And Then He Was All in 2010 and Tarot in 2011. And Then He Was All is available through NAYD’s Playshare programme. His play Boys and Girls premiered as part of Dublin Fringe 2013, winning the Fishamble Best New Writing Award. It was also nominated for the Stewart Parker Trust Award, for the Best Theatre Script Award at the Irish Writers’ Guild Awards (Zebbies), and has subsequently toured to New York (First Irish Festival, 2014) and Moscow (Irish Week, 2015), winning the First Irish Festival Awards for Best Ensemble and Best Play. Subsequent work includes Drawing Crosses On A Dusty Windowpane (Tiger Dublin Fringe 2015) and Citysong (Lingo Festival 2015). His writing is characterised by a playful approach to text and form.
David Coonan is a composer. His work is driven by a notion of creative recycling, and his all-embracing musical curiosity has led to a body of compositions mindful of many diverse influences. David’s music has been performed by, amongst others, Belfast City organist Colm Carey, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra – who commissioned his orchestral work Sarcasms as part of their 2015 Horizons series. He is currently a Sound and Music ‘Embedded’ composer-in-residence with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. David studied composition at TCD, and the Royal Academy of Music, London, from which he graduated with Distinction and the DipRAM award for outstanding final portfolio.
Web: www.david-coonan.com
Dan Colley is a director, dramaturg and facilitator. Matthew Smyth is a producer. Together they run Collapsing Horse, a company that creates entertaining, provocative, audience-focused theatre that merges artistic disciplines, including puppetry, physical theatre and music. Their productions to date, Monster/Clock (2012), Human Child (2013), Distance From The Event (2013) and Bears in Space (2014) have been presented in and toured to 22 venues in four countries, including Soho Theatre, London; Gogol Centre, Moscow and Edinburgh Fringe. Collapsing Horse are currently Theatre Artists in Residence in Draíocht, Blanchardstown. With their 16x16 bursary they will grow their Summer Camp festival and establish a Collapsing Horse Ensemble. Dan is a graduate of NUI Galway and NAYD’s Artstrain programme. Matthew is a graduate of TCD.
Web: www.collapsinghorsetheatre.com
Philip Connaughton trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, London. He was Associate Artist of Dance Ireland 2013/14. In 2012 he was Artist in Residence at axis:Ballymun where he created Mortuus Est Philippus for Dublin Dance Festival. His piece, Tardigrade, was twice nominated and won best design at Dublin Fringe Festival 2014. He Recently created a new piece, Whack!!, in collaboration with Compagnie Kashyl in Paris and will tour this in France and Ireland in early 2016. Inspired by too many things, he is interested in dance that is both accessible, yet challenging, and as a performer he strives to push beyond categorisation.
Web: www.philipconnaughton.com
Guillaume Cousson is a self taught circus performer whose practice combines circus, dance, magic and technology. He has toured his performance character, Riuchi to a number of Euroepan festivals, including Vault Festival, London (2015), Chartres en Lumiere, France (2013) and the Midsummer Festival, Cork (since 2013). The Irish Times described Riuchi as “an intriguing synthesis of technology and a skilled and imaginative performer.” Guillaume is the managing director of Circus Factory. He has received awards from the Arts Council, Cork City Council and has toured work with Culture Ireland. Cousson is currently working on new projects including Riuchi Dreams of Light and Inferno fire show.
Web: http://riuchi.com
Ella de Búrca is a visual artist. Her installations are conceived for specific occasions, disappearing after they are exhibited. Her bold, large scale sculptures could be mistaken for theatre sets, as she uses performance and the object to examine notions of hegemonic masculinity in Irish literature and culture. Recent selected exhibitions include IMMA Rising, June 2015, Otherwise, WYSPA Gdansk, July 2014, and The Emergency Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2013. Awards include The Evelyn Wood Scholarship for The Banff Centre, 2011, Fingal County Council Bursary 2015 and Culture Ireland 2013. Residencies include The Banff Centre, 2011, AIR Antwerpen 2012 and The HISK, Belgium, 2016 to 2017. De Búrca holds an MFA from NCAD (2011) and a BA (Hons) from IADT (2009).
Angela Fulcher is a visual artist working in sculpture and installation. Using techniques of assemblage, she reconfigures found objects and fabrics to reveal aspects of their material nature. Angela graduated from IADT, Dun Laoghaire in 2010 with an MA in Visual Arts Practice. She holds a BA Hons Degree in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, 2008. Recent exhibitions include Compression, Ormston House, Limerick, 2015 and Stitch in Time, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, 2015. Angela participated in IronR2 at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork, 2014 and Welcome to the Neighbourhood at Askeaton Contemporary Arts, Limerick, 2010.
Web: www.angela-fulcher.com
Ramon Kassam is a visual artist from Limerick City. Paintings form the basis of his practice, they incorporate various motifs, and are the result of an intuitive reshuffling and re-contextualisation of studio materials, biographical elements and art histories. Ramon received his BA in Fine Art Painting from Limerick School of Art and Design in 2007. He has been exhibited regularly since 2010. Exhibitions include: Limerick City Gallery of Art (2015 Solo), EVA International, Limerick (2014). Pallas Projects, Dublin (2013 Solo). He has also been awarded a number of residencies; The Irish Museum of Modern Art (2013), RHA Tony O’ Malley Residency Award (2013/14), The Ethiopian Project Residency - Irish Embassy, Ethiopia (2014), and a Temple Bar Gallery & Studios - Project Studio Award (2015/16).
Web: www.ramonkassam.com
Alma Kelliher is a composer, sound designer and musician based in Dublin. Theatre credits include: riverrun (Emergency Room, worldwide tour) Winner Best Sound Design, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2013; The Elephantom (UK National Theatre and West End); Cure (Fearghus Ó Conchuir); I’m Your Man (thisispopbaby). Alma has a BA in Music (Trinity College) and an MSc in Sound Design (Edinburgh University). She studied Organ with the London College of Music and Media and is a graduate of the Rough Magic SEEDS Programme 2010-11. Alma is a member of The Evertides – a musical trio influenced by folk, gospel and vocal harmony.
Web: www.almakelliher.com
Mollie Anna King is a visual artist. She studied for her B.A at Crawford College of Art & Design Cork before completing an M.F.A in Sculpture at the Slade School of Art in 2013. A recipient of the Barto dos Santos memorial award and the Land Securities award, she recently completed a year long studio residency in Bow Arts. She has had solo shows in the Black Mariah (2013), Cork and CANAL Gallery in London (2014) with Group Shows in A.P.T Gallery, London (2014) and GL Strand, Copenhagen (2013). Molly Anna works with synthetic and natural materials, exploring their ‘intrinsic narratives’ and creating 'anthropocenic sculptures'. She is currently working on a Sculpture Commission for St. Angela's College, Cork with the National Sculpture Factory and O'Donnell + Twomey Architects.
Web: www.mollieannaking.com
Sofie Loscher is a visual artist who is interested in perception and optics; her work uses illusions that demonstrate how visibility works. Recent exhibitions include Light Falls, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2015); Welcome Disturbance, The LAB Gallery, Dublin (2015); Agitationism, EVA International, Limerick (2014). In 2014, she undertook a yearlong Art in Science residency in the Department of Physics at UCD. Sofie holds an MFA in Sculpture from NCAD (2013) and a BA in Visual Arts Practice from IADT (2009).
Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet from North West Donegal. Her poems have been published in Ireland and abroad. Some of the major publications to feature her work include Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, The Shop and The London Magazine. In 2013, Annemarie was selected for the Emerging Writer Series at the Cork Spring Poetry Festival and the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. More recently, she has been awarded literary fellowships by Akademie Schloss Solitude (Germany), JackKerouac House (Orlando) and Hawthornden Castle (Edinburgh). Annemarie is co-founder of Upstart and a 2011 graduate of the M.Phil Creative Writing at the Oscar Wilde Centre, TCD.
Web: http://cargocollective.com/annemarienichurreain
Sian Ni Mhuiri is a writer, producer and director of theatre for young audiences, and a graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama, London. She is the founding director of theatre company Super Paua, and writer/producer of Aunty Ben – Ireland’s first LGBT play for children – which recently won the Allianz Community Arts Prize 2015. She’s recently collaborated with the Abbey Community and Education Department (Aunty Ben), the Ark (Colour!), the IFI Family Festival, and Starke Stücke festival, Frankfurt. Sian is a committee member of Theatre for Young Audiences Ireland, and is part of Theatre Forum’s Producer Mentorship Programme.
Web: www.superpaua.org
Fiona Reilly is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Dublin. She holds an M.A in Social Practice and the Creative Environment from Limerick School of Art and Design and a B.A in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design. She was a recipient of the Firestation Artist Studios Digital Media Award 2015 and presented work at the Fifth-Interformat Symposium on Time at NIDA Art Colony, Lithuania, 2015. Fiona has exhibited throughout Ireland and abroad receiving numerous awards including The Claremorris Open Exhibition Award 2013 selected by Curator Andrew Wilson.
Web: www.fionareilly.com
Jijo Sebastian is a science graduate turned filmmaker. He has made five short films and one feature length film focusing on the lives of the Indian community in Ireland. Having lived as a migrant in different places, Jijo is interested in themes of identity and belonging in a globalised world. His work is often experimental in form and darkly comic. Jijo’s films have been screened at international film festivals including the International Short Film Festival of Uruguay (2013), Vibgyor International Film Festival, Thrissur, Kerala, India (2013) and Fokana Film Festival, Illinois, USA (2014). He is currently working as Artist in the Community with Create.
Web: www.jijospalatty.com
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