The Creative Well arts and well-being project is delighted to announce it will be in residency with “This Must Be the Place” at the Riverbank Arts Centre throughout 2017. The Creative Well is a Kildare County Council Arts Service project.
The Creative Well and Riverbank Arts Centre will open the McKenna Gallery to explore the permeable nature of the gallery as a space and place for making, discussion, encountering and exhibition.
The Creative Well visual arts programme of work aims to build and support well-being and rich life experiences by encouraging adults to engage with their creativity through visual art. In a friendly social space, we welcome people with all levels of abilities and life experiences, providing opportunities for everyone from complete beginners, to practicing artists and all in between!
In 2017 the McKenna art gallery at the Riverbank Arts Centre will be utilised not only as a place to see wonderful artworks but also a place where people can engage with their own creativity directly through a series of visual art workshops and artists talks open to all. We will also offer a series of opportunities for practicing artists to develop their work by using the gallery as a studio space for short periods in 2017. Building on our successful curatorial project last year we will also work with a number of local organisations to select contemporary artworks for showing in the McKenna gallery.
The Creative Well open studio will continue throughout 2017 providing space on an ongoing basis for individuals to develop their own arts practice and a specific project. Open studio participants have been working with the Creative Well for a number of years however spaces are available for further participants in 2017.
Artist Biographies:
Dominic Thorpe Dominic Thorpe is an Irish visual artist originally from Newbridge. He has shown work widely internationally and in Ireland, including at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Bangkok Cultural Centre Thailand, Xiamen University China, SASA Gallery Adelaide Australia, Temple Bar Gallery and the Galway Arts Centre. In 2014/15 he was the first artist in residence at the humanities department of University College Dublin where he researched relationships between memory, trauma and processes of performance art. While working with Unit1 he co-curated the work of over 70 Irish and International performance artists. He currently works at the Creative Well Arts and Well-being Project Riverbank Arts Centre Newbridge and at KCAT Arts Centre Kilkenny.
Emma Finucane Emma is a visual artist based in Co.Wicklow. She has been commissioned and supported by the Arts Council Ireland, CREATE, Wicklow, Carlow and Kildare County Councils. Her work has been shown in Dublin, Belfast, Germany, U.K, L.A. and Copenhagen and can be found in many private and public collections including: OPW, AIB, DIT, and UCD. She is working on a interdisciplinary research project with the School of nursing and Midwifery, UCD. She is a founding member of Outpost Studios, and sits on the Board of Directors in Black Church Print Studio. She currently works at the Creative Well Arts and Well-being Project Riverbank Arts Centre Newbridge and lectures part time in the NCAD Fine Print Department.
Eleanor Philips Eleanor Phillips works within a collaborative framework where outcomes are informed by the processes that take place through conversation and exploration with others. Eleanor studied Fine Art in NCAD 2002, H.Dip Community Arts Education, NCAD 2005 and MA Art in Public Ulster University Belfast, 2009. She has been commissioned and supported by Arts Council Ireland, CREATE, Wicklow County Council, Craigavon County Council, Bray Urban District Council, PEACE III Arts and Diversity Fund, Northern Ireland, Regional Arts Council St. Louis, and City Council Celje, Slovenia. Her work has been shown throughout Ireland and is held in private and public collections including Wicklow County Council and John Erickson Museum,Florida.