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CREATIVE PROJECTS

Project | 01
Project | 01 - Street Spectacle
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I have been the lead artist/producer on Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre's contribution to the Skibbereen St Patrick's Day Parade in 2019, 2020 (postponed due to Coronavirus) and 2021. I put together a creative team consisting of local sustainable fashion designer Alice Halliday, designer/maker, Michael Stephens, and myself. We worked with hundreds of volunteers from the local community between January and March each year. Together we created upcycled costumes and props using waste materials, as well as performing in the parade alongside the workshop participants, staff from Uillinn and other members of the local community. In 2021, knowing that the physical parade was unlikely to go ahead, we put together a programme of online creative engagement activities culminating in a 'Virtual Parade' event including projections of a short film and stills by local photographer Kate Bean and installations displaying the costumes, in the buildings opposite the arts centre. The team plans to continue the project in 2022 and finally realise the physical parade, with the ambition of making it the most spectacular the town has ever seen!

Project | 02
Project | 02 - Fine Art Curating
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In 2019 I was invited to guest curate my own exhibition of artworks at Blue House Gallery, Schull, in West Cork. My response was to put together a group show for which I asked the artists to consider and respond to the concept of “Alternative Views of West Cork”, in their own preferred medium. The resulting artworks showed a non-traditional side to the landscape of an area well-known and represented for, its natural beauty. In contrast to the usual images of a bucolic rural idyll, the exhibition captured and explored some less-seen and perhaps darker aspects of the area, more often experienced by long-term residents than visitors.

Project | 03
Project | 03 - Public Art
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​I worked in the field of public art from 2006 until 2014. Working through my creative practice, Fourth Wall Creations, as well as assisting Gordon Young, one of the UK's leading public artists, I worked with a range of public and private sector clients to develop and implement proposals ranging from small-scale temporary interventions to large-scale permanent projects. 
 
My largest ever permanent project was 'Pennine Streetscene Improvements', with a budget of over £200k. Fourth Wall Creations was commissioned by social landlord, Pennine Housing 2000 (now part of Together Housing) in 2010, to devise and implement a comprehensive public art strategy encompassing two neighbourhoods in Sheffield, Wisewood (top left) and Manor Park (bottom left).
 
Both were classed as more deprived areas of the city, with a high proportion of low-income and ethnic minority residents. Working in collaboration with the appointed landscape architects, we developed proposals for a variety of permanent artworks, as a result of an extensive program of community engagement, consultation and co-design. For several months prior to the design stage, we worked with local community groups, including older people, young people not in education or employment (NEETs), ethnic minorities and schools. Once the proposals were finalised we worked with artists, fabricators and craftspeople in the local area to produce the designs that were co-created with the community. In Wisewood, we recycled timber from culled street trees into bespoke benches, notice boards, signage and sculptures with an animal theme. In Manor Park we ran a naming competition for three new parks and created artworks inspired by those names and the local Tudor history.
To see more or discuss possible work, let's talk >>
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