Dean Art Studios Dublin announce recipients of 20 studio spaces following open call

Padraig Conlon 25 Jul 2022

The Dean Art Studios, Dublin have announced the recipients of twenty new studio spaces at the multi-disciplinary Chatham Street complex, an initiative of Press Up Hospitality Group.

The selected artists who have been awarded workspaces and studios are multidisciplinary artists Jesse Jones and Chinedum Muotto; sculptors Nuala O’Donovan and Karen Donnellan; stage and screen writer Sonya Kelly; author Olivia Fitzsimons; photographers Vera Ryklova and Letizia Lopreiato; painters Owen De Forge and Brid Higgins; set and costume designer Katie Davenport; musicians, composers and performers Adrian Crowley, Jessica Kavanagh, Ena Brennan (Dowry) and Rafino Murphy (Uly); Afro-Brazilian dancer and choreographer Alessandra Azevedo; Iranian artist Diaa Lagan; urban lifestyle magazine Slight Motif; writer and actor Shane O’Reilly.

NCAD graduate painter Carl Hickey has been awarded a studio space as part of the Dean Art Studios x NCAD partnership, which also includes a commitment to the annual purchase of one graduate artwork for addition to the Press Up Hospitality Group Art Collection. Art activist Thais Muniz joins artists Brian Teeling, Salvatore of Lucan, and Elayne Harrington as part of the IMMA x Dean Art Studios Residency Programme.

Dean Art Studios sitting residents include boundary breaking theatre makers THISISPOPBABY; Irish music incubator First Music Contact; music photographer Ruth Medjber; songwriter and performer Paul Noonan; embroidery artist Domino Whisker and contemporary artists Leah Hewson and Aoife Scott.

Irish refugee charity The SCOOP Foundation have also been given a studio at DAS which they will award to artists on a rotating residency. The DAS team and residents extend a warm welcome to art therapist Oksana Tsymbalova, who was Head of Art Studio at Odessa Science and Art Museum prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

“The Dean Art Studio is an environment that understands and supports artists,

and this residency allows me to engage with my practice in a manner that respects my work,

free of the extra financial pressures that can upset the creative process.”

Vera Ryklova, Photographer, Recipient of the Irish Talent Award from PhotoIreland

at the European FUTURES Festival 2020

“To be able to have both the privilege of my own space, while also feeling a part of a collective of artists is so incredible and so nourishing to me,” said Jessica Kavanagh, Musician, Performer and Writer.

The new residents were selected following an Open Call in May of this year, with an independent panel of cross discipline arts and cultural professionals assembled to review and select from more than 150 applications.

The panel consisted of publisher Michael McDermott, editor of Totally Dublin, creator at Just Six Degrees, 100 Archive panel member, Producer, Writer, and avid culture buff; Simba Bianchi, music producer, sound engineer, rapper and owner of Jungle Beam Music Studio; Amir Abu Alrob, theatre maker, performer, spoken word artist; Thais Muniz, artist, designer and founder of Turbante-se; Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll, curator, art writer, co-editor of Paper Visual Art Journal (2014-2018), former director of Berlin Opticians Gallery; Rosie Gogan-Keogh, managing director at Hen’s Teeth, publisher, journalist and podcast producer; Sharon Greene, artist, curating space, craft curator and Kate Farnon, DAS Studio Manager.

“We are delighted to welcome all the artists, makers, and creators to the Dean Art Studios, at its new home on Chatham Row in the heart of Dublin city. We look forward to supporting and uplifting this incredibly rich and diverse collective of talent, and utilising our resources, businesses, and activities to amplify and sustain their vital work into the future. We understand that the artistic and cultural vibrancy of a city is at the heart of what makes a desirable place to live, work and visit, and we are committed to engaging and working with Ireland’s artistic and cultural community to build a positive, valued, and respectful shared future together.”

Ben Barclay, CEO, Press Up Hospitality Group

The Dean Art Studios are the next phase of Press Up Hospitality Group’s long term Cultural Strategy which commits to investing, uplifting, and supporting Irish artists, arts workers, arts organisations, makers, and creators in a meaningful and practical way. This includes the provision of these fully serviced and funded artist workspaces in Dublin city (all costs, rental, legal, insurance, security, health and safety, improvements, infrastructure, maintenance, management of the Chatham Row building and its occupants), the purchase of artworks (over €1,000,000 invested in hundreds of established and emerging Irish visual artists in the last three years alone), the employment of Irish businesses and providers who service the arts and creative ecosystem (photographers, videographers, writers, content creators, curators, framers, handlers, installers, designers across graphics, product, web, fashion, set, interiors, architecture, landscape and many more), benefit in kind to enable work and offset costs for artists and arts organisations, national cultural institutions, local events, festivals, productions, charities and initiatives (bed nights, event spaces, shoot locations, food and beverage, advertising, promotion, sponsorship etc including a seven-year Accommodation Partnership with IMMA), and a commitment to platforming and promoting the work of emerging and established Irish artists and creatives through the businesses of the Group such as hotels, cinemas and performance venues.

“We are immensely proud to support the work of Press Up Hospitality Group as they develop and expand their Cultural Strategy. The Dean Art Studios were initially founded in 2019 in a leased building on Harcourt Street in Dublin, as a vehicle to establish the needs of the arts community through engagement and discourse, and to develop practical responses to benefit artists and organisations.

“I am confident that the work on and the investment in the Dean Art Studios, and indeed the wider and continuous investment in Ireland’s artists and arts ecosystem by Press Up Hospitality Group, is a positive step towards ensuring commercial and corporate entities authentically support the arts ecosystem who contribute so much to our economy, communities, society, and wellbeing,” said Aileen Galvin, Arts Consultant, Sync & Swim

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