PS² Strategic Vision and Development Curator

Image courtesy of PS2

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been appointed as Strategic Vision and Development Curator at PS². It’s a part-time role, for a year initially, and is described by PS² as crucial role for the future development of the organisation and its place within the arts ecology of Belfast and Northern Ireland. I will be responsible for the next phase in PS²’s history, upholding the core mission and values; reaching out to a growing and more diverse audience; developing a creative vision for PS²; and putting in place an appropriate organisational structure.

PS² started in 1993 as a self-organised artist- and studio collective in Belfast, with currently 9 studio artists and 3 annual residency programmes for: a curator, critical writing and a collective. In 2004, a small ground floor shop in the studio building was used as a project space for invited artists. The project space quickly became an attractive and important platform for local and trans-local artists to experiment and create new and site specific work, open to the public. Funded by the Arts Council and other sources, PS² soon established an annual arts programme of around 20-25 projects with mainly emerging artists and cultural producers. Chosen from proposals, invitations, recommendations, open calls and chance encounters, PS² works on average with 40-70 artists a year, in the project space and with longer term projects at outside locations in community contexts. PS² has a clear curatorial vision and curiosity, working with artists whose work is experimental, original, risk-taking, of social relevance- and- artistically brilliant. PS² is a vital springboard for the development of artists’ careers within the arts ecosystem of Northern Ireland (see Freelands Artists Programme) and a feeder to larger organisations. PS² projects assist many artists being rewarded with individual funding, residencies, travel awards and /or employment in the arts sector. With innovative project formats of open calls, we specifically target artists and cultural producers, who might otherwise remain undetected and unsupported. As the longstanding artistic curator will leave his voluntary position at the end of 2023, PS² wants to secure and expand the organisation through a small and flexible team of paid staff, continuing and deepening the experimental nature of the organisation.

This post is funded by Belfast City Council’s ‘Artist Studios and Maker Spaces Organisational Grants’ and the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.