Ciara Hickey and I…

Our coach, Ceri Hand https://www.cerihand.com

Ciara Hickey and I have begun to formalise our working relationship thanks to Arts Council of Northern Ireland. We were successful in our SIAP (Support for the Individual Artist Programme) application in December 2022, supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. A massive thanks too to National Lottery players and money raised for good causes.

Ciara and I have been individually committed to supporting artists for a combined 30 years – through mentorship and advice, setting up and delivering programmes for emerging artists, and advocating for artists and the vital role they play in society through our curatorial, written, academic and publicly engaged work. We applied to ACNI to support a period of coaching with the amazing Ceri Hand (fan-girling!!) and have been overwhelmed by Ceri’s kindness and commitment to working with us personally.

We also sought to fund a series of research/relationship-building trips or online meetings to meet other curators and arts professionals across a range of practices (independent, studios, foundations, and sector-support organisations) on the island of Ireland and in London who have exemplary records in artist development. Finally, we will build in some research days following our trips to assimilate our new knowledge and figure out how we can take our ideas forward, as we work towards establishing an offer for artists based in Northern Ireland in future years.

Updates to follow in due course…