Programme
Visual Arts Workers’ Forum
Ormston House welcomes you to the fourth Visual Arts Workers Forum in Limerick City. VAWF is for visual arts workers in Ireland – artists, art writers, art students, curators, art historians, educators, arts officers, private gallerists, art technicians, archivists, studio managers, facilitators, art administrators, and more – and enables an open conversation and a place for debate. VAWF is an independent, not-for-profit and non-funded initiative that works nomadically across the arts network.
Timetable
Tea & Coffee: 10.00-10.30
Introduction: 10.30-10.40
Session 1 – Ireland in 2050: 10.40-12.00
Vision – Legacy – Strategy
The opening session of VAWF 2015 invites participants to imagine Ireland in 2050: How will we be living? As we commemorate the momentous events that shaped Modern Ireland, let’s reflect together on the impact of current social and political developments on cultural access, creative citizenship and sustainable heritage. What does the future look like? What role might the arts play (or do they play) in shaping that future?
Speakers: Úna McCarthy (Director/Curator, Limerick City Gallery of Art), Kevin O’Keeffe (Co-ordinator, Visual Art Ecology Limerick, National City of Culture 2014) & Seán Rainbird (Director, National Gallery of Ireland). Chair: Woodrow Kernohan (Director/CEO, eva International & Curator, Ireland at Venice 2015)
Session 2 – The Inclusion Delusion?: 12.00-13.20
It may seem self-evident that a democratic society ought to develop inclusive institutions and systems, yet when we try to define what we understand by inclusion, its complexity becomes apparent. What are the presuppositions, values, aims and blindspots associated with the language of inclusion? What happens when we fail to think about the unintended consequences of including those who were previously excluded? Is there an implicit ideal of ‘normality’ at play? Does the concept of inclusion foreclose interrogation of patterns of privilege and power?
Speakers: Ciara Hickey & Alissa Kleist (Co-directors/Co-curators, Household Curatorial Collective), Nora O’Murchú (Curator & Lecturer, University of Limerick) & Aislinn O’Donnell (Lecturer in Philosophy of Education, Mary Immaculate College, UL). Chair: Mary Conlon (Director, Ormston House)
Lunch: 13.20-14.30
Session 3 – Aftershock: 14.30-15.50
“A reduction in funding for arts, culture and film by some €16 million between 2011 and 2014, elicits little public comment or concern [and] underlines the peripheral place the arts are too often granted in our society and in the public consciousness” (Michael D. Higgins, Aosdána General Assembly, 5 March 2015)
Despite crippling cuts, the arts sector is often portrayed as resilient and adaptable. How are we really coping with the precarity of the financial crisis – personally, practically, professionally? Aftershock examines strategies for survival such as new processes of collaboration and participation, a frank presentation of a small organisation’s annual budget and a collective curatorial strategy which asks: “Now what?”
Speakers: Mark Cullen & Gavin Murphy (artists & Co-directors, Pallas Projects & Studios), Emer Ní Chiobháin (artist & Director, Sample Studios) & Viviana Checchia (Public Engagement Curator, CCA Glasgow). Chair: Marilyn Lennon (artist & Joint Programme Leader, MA in Social Practice & the Creative Environment, LSAD)
Prime Time debate: 15.50-16.50
VAWF 2015 will culminate in the Prime Time debate on two topical issues which draw on questions raised in each of the day’s sessions: NCAD Student Action – getting down to business and JobBridge – bridge to nowhere?
Contributions from Bernadette Beecher (Office Manager, Visual Artists Ireland), Marta Slawinska (Arts Programmer, Ormston House), Eimear Walshe & Niamh Moriarty (artists & postgraduate students, NCAD), & more.
ENDS 17.00
Thanks & acknowledgements:
Tessa Giblin & Rachael Gilbourne (VAWF)
Louise Donlon & Jay Kavanagh (The Lime Tree Theatre)
Ormston House team: Chris Boland, Niamh Brown, Simon Corcoran, Bob Murrihy, Eimear Redmond, Billy Lingwood, Chris Hayes, Marta Luque, Caoimhe MacAllister, Lorraine Masters, Aislinn O’Keeffe, Marta Slawinska, Aintzane Usandizaga.