Arts and Disability Connect Funding Announcement for Round One 2024

The Arts Council and Arts & Disability Ireland announce the awarded artists for Round One of the Arts and Disability Connect scheme 2024. 

The Arts and Disability Connect scheme is designed to support artists with disabilities to be ambitious, to develop their practice and to connect with arts organisations and arts professionals in Ireland. 

The Arts Council and Arts & Disability Ireland are delighted to announce that €55,220 has been awarded to 12 artists through New Work awards, Research and Reflection awards, Mentoring awards and a Training award as part of Round One in 2024.  

“At the heart of every Arts and Disability Connect award is the chance to engage in new learning experiences, research new creative approaches, build new working relationships and to reach new audiences.  Above all else it is an opportunity for all awarded artists to further develop their professional practice and explore a new level of creative ambition”

– Pádraig Naughton, Executive Director of Arts & Disability Ireland.

New Work 

New Work awards give artists the resources and time to develop and present new and ambitious work. Artists work with an arts partner to support them to get this new work seen by audiences. One artist received a New Work award in Round One this year. 

Michael Patrick Campbell is a playwright who will write a one person play exploring what it is like to slowly become more disabled over time because of Motor Neurone Disease. He will work with director Oisín Kearney and lead partner Axis Ballymun to develop the play for presentation at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2025.  

Research and Reflection 

Research and Reflection awards give artists time to think, research, reflect and critically engage with their practice. In this Round, five artists received Research and Reflection awards. 

Alison Clarke is a dancer based in Wicklow who will research mental health and the female experience. She will also develop methods of working between choreography and performance poetry. These will be informed by collaboration with Professor Brendan Kelly and performance poet Alysia Harris. 

Emilie Richard-Froozan is a writer and filmmaker from New York, now based in Mayo. She will research epilepsy, Mozart’s music and shame in the Persian culture. Interested in music and its neurological connection to the mind of a person with epilepsy, she hopes to create an experimental film about this in the future.  

Ivan Owen is a Limerick based animator and interdisciplinary artist.  He will research the principles of mechanical, analogue animation techniques, including zoetrope, kinetoscope and praxinoscope to further innovate with a new concept. He will apply this to create short experimental animated clips and document the process.  

Lucy O’Donnell is a Mayo based visual artist who will do research focusing on ableism and its presence in our society within the context of miscarriage. She will also research the use of hologram technology to make future artwork.  

Romi Cruaňas is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and theatre maker based in Dublin. In collaboration with Mairead Folan, they will research and reflect in order to create new, relevant work that is inclusive, and which can safely bring together people from many different backgrounds. 

Mentoring 

Mentoring awards give artists the resources to develop a mentoring relationship with a more established arts professional. Artists work on an element of their practice with their mentor. In Round One, five artists received Mentoring awards. 

Alex Conway is a Dublin based visual artist. Through a mentorship with curator and lecturer Michelle Browne, he will develop his proposal writing skills.  Alex will also develop a new body of work as part of the mentorship, introducing new themes including illusion, the absurd, failure and its positive effects.  

Clare Martyn is a musician based in Cavan. She will do a mentorship with Judith Mok where she will learn new techniques for the use of In Ear Monitors (IEMs). Clare will translate the vocal techniques and practice she has already acquired, to a completely different and challenging monitoring system. 

Grace Haynes is a Cork based visual artist who is interested in eco-art processes. She will do a mentorship with Ashleigh Ellis where she will learn skills in natural dyeing and pigment through a community project approach.  

Helen Horgan is a visual artist based in Cork. Doing a mentorship with Alan James Burns, which will take the form of a series of interviews around specific areas of Helen’s practice through sharing of work, with questions designed to tease out solutions from within her own thinking and making. 

Moss Russell is a circus performer based in Cork who will do a mentorship with Jody O’Neill. Jody will focus on providing dramaturgical support for Moss’s existing work, ‘Squish Stomp Spin’ and any new projects they may be developing. 

Training 

Training awards give artists the resources to learn skills through courses, workshops and masterclasses facilitated by arts organisations, artists and arts professionals. One artist received a Training award in Round One this year.  

Lorna Watkins is a Sligo based visual artist. She will attend a sculptural process workshop delivered by Anna Spearman. She will work with a range of materials including textiles, clay, cardboard, foam, tape, wire and paper mâché and explore how these skills will connect with the rest of her visual arts practice. 

Congratulations to all the awarded artists! 

For more information about the Arts and Disability Connect scheme see adiarts.ie/connect 

Image Credit: What Is Not Ours To Carry, by Alison Clarke, 2023, the Mermaid Arts Centre. Photo by Sonya O’Donoghue.