IMMA is delighted to announce the four artists who have been selected for the first of a new series of IMMA 1000 Residency Awards, supported by the IMMA 1000 fund. The four artists selected for the IMMA 1000 Residency Programme are Jenny Brady, Neil Carroll, Dragana Jurisic, and artist duo Walker and Walker. 

IMMA 1000 is a fund specifically created to support IMMA’s work with Irish artists in the drastically altered social and economic environment we find ourselves in since 2008, one which has made it increasingly challenging for artists to continue living and working in Ireland. One of the key aims of the IMMA 1000 fund is to secure the artist ecosystem for the future.  It does this in three key ways; supporting artists’ income through commissions and exhibitions; supporting artists’ work through the purchasing of work for the IMMA Collection and supporting artists to live and work in Ireland through bursaries and the IMMA residency programme, the first four of which are announced today. 

A major one-year residency for established artists at a key point in their career has been awarded to artist duo Walker and Walker who co-represented Ireland at the 51st International Venice Biennale in 2005 and have exhibited widely nationally and internationally. Artists for this award were nominated by a panel of curators from across the country and assessed by a second selection panel. Walker and Walker will receive studio space for 12months at the museum, access to IMMA resources and a bursary of €12,000. Commenting on their award today they said; “This is a very commendable initiative at IMMA. Its key benefit to our practice is that it provides a significant opportunity for us to spend time together in one shared studio space. This will be extremely beneficial, as we have been working together since 1989 but have not had a shared space in over 10 years. We are looking forward to a productive period together!” 

Three 6-month residencies, one of which has a special focus on photography, were awarded through an open call process, and then chosen by selection panels. Three artists, Jenny Brady, Neil Carroll, Dragana Jurisic, have been awarded separate 6-month residencies in IMMA and bursaries of €6,000 each.  Commenting on her IMMA Residency Award, selected artist Jenny Brady said; “I’m so thrilled to have been selected for the IMMA 1000 Residency. It’s come at a critical point in the development of a new film project, and I want to use the time, space and resources as well as the context of IMMA to embrace new, experimental modes of production and presentation for my practice. I think an opportunity like this can really increase the scope and ambition of a project through the level of focus it allows, whilst also challenging and extending the parameters of one’s own methods. I’m very excited to get started.” 

“The residency at IMMA will afford me the time and space to explore the potential of my practice through a sustained period of production in the studio. In addition, the studio and grounds at IMMA provide the perfect location for the processes within my practice to unfold; the more formal aspects of the existing architecture acting as a backdrop and juxtaposition to the more experimental spaces of my practice. I am absolutely delighted to be given this opportunity.” Neil Carroll

“The IMMA residency comes at a pivotal point in my career. I am grateful for IMMA’s support during this time and very much looking forward to the new communal context – meeting and living in close proximity to the other residency awardees, the possibility of exchanging ideas and expanding each other’s practices through mutual support and potential future collaborations. The importance of the input from new mentors, curators, art historians and other persons we will meet during our time in IMMA, as well as having an opportunity to live and work in an incredible inspiring place cannot be overstated.” Dragana Jurisic 

IMMA 1000 was started in 2016 with an ambitious target of raising €250,000 over three years and is now well on the way to reaching this goal – with over €180,000 raised by IMMA to date. IMMA has been supported in this initiative by Goodbody as exclusive corporate founding partner. Goodbody has been joined by a host of visionary individual donors, each giving a minimum donation of €690 to the IMMA 1000 fund. As Ireland’s longest established stockbroking firm, Goodbody understands the importance of creating a legacy today for future generations. That is why it made a firm commitment to contribute significant funds to this important initiative over three years. 

“Goodbody has high regard for IMMA and the work it does. We believe artists deserve a secure place in Irish society,” said Roy Barrett, Goodbody Managing Director. “Goodbody wants to help to build and sustain the cultural institutions that make art viable in Ireland. IMMA 1000 is a project of real ambition that we are honoured to support.”

Three acquisitions for the IMMA Collection were announced earlier this year from the fund, as well as additional match funding support of €50,000 for IMMA 1000 acquisitions by the Minister for Culture Heather Humphreys T.D. Additional acquisitions will be announced in early 2018. 

-ENDS –

For more information and images please contact [email protected] or [email protected] 01 612 9922.

Using experimental narratives, Jenny Brady’s film works explore ideas around translation, communication and the limitations of language, whilst slowing down our experience of looking at and listening to the moving image. Her works attempt to find potential mutualities between disparate subjects, both human and non-human, through abstract video portraits in which animals often appear as troubling figures of mistranslation. Her works are attentive to the sensory and perceptual conditions of sound, and feature a unique audio-visual grammar, which draws on experimental music and utilizes unexpected rhythms, interruption and commentary to complicate potential readings of the subjects she explores. Recent presentations include The Political Animal curated by Olga Koroleva, The Showroom, London, As We May Think curated by Alice Butler, IFI, Dublin; November Film Festival, Goldsmiths, London; Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK; 62nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany; and You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Beursschouwburg, Brussels and Videonale 15, Kunstmuseum, Bonn. Brady is co-founder / co-curator of PLASTIK Festival of Artists’ Moving Image. 

Neil is an emerging artist based in Dublin, Ireland. He received his MFA from the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (June 2016) and his BFA from the National College of Art in Dublin (2010), achieving Distinction in both. Since 2010, Carroll has been continuously exhibiting in solo and group shows. In the summer of 2015 he was the recipient of a fellowship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, USA. He was awarded the Hennessey-Craig scholarship for painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin in 2012. He has also received artist’s bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland (2017, 2015).

Dragana Jurisic is an ex-Yugoslav artist based in Dublin, Ireland since 1999. She works predominantly through the medium of photography, film and installation. Jurisic’s practice explores the issues of gender, stereotyping and the effects of exile and displacement on memory and identity. Since receiving a distinction for her MFA in 2008, Dragana Jurisic has won a significant number of awards including Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor Award’s Special Recognition from Duke University, numerous Bursaries and Project Awards. In December 2013, Dragana completed her PhD and finalized a three-year long project ‘YU: The Lost Country’ that culminated in a critically acclaimed touring exhibition and a book. Her work is in many collections including Irish State Art Collection and she has exhibited widely both in Ireland and internationally. 

Walker and Walkers work is research driven and diverse in its range of materials, methods and references. Exploiting the threshold of meaning and its construction, they create installations that emphasise factors which cannot be easily defined, such as the overlooked in typography, the misreading of a text, the ill-defined or unresolved, opening up new narratives where stabilities are shifted and undone, and the seemingly incoherent produces new readings. They have recently produced a new publication of their work Return Inverse (2017). Walker and Walker have been collaborating since 1989. They co-represented Ireland at the 51st International Venice Biennale in 2005 and have exhibited widely nationally and internationally.

The IMMA 1000 Residencies (6 months) offer the following support to the selected artists.

– Use of a large studio at IMMA for a maximum duration of six months.

– Separate accommodation at IMMA is available for a maximum duration of six months

– A bursary award of €12,000. 

The yearlong IMMA 1000 Residency Award (12 months) establishes crucial annual support to assist by creating a shift within an artist’s practice at a significant moment in their career. The objectives of the residency are;

– To support artistic practice by alleviating financial and workspace pressures through the provision of space, time and affiliated IMMA resources to support research and practice development.

– To ensure that this award is offered at a timely point in the nominated artists career which will contribute to personal and professional growth.

– To broaden the potential of early, mid and mature career artists working with IMMA through various programming strategies.

– To support new work, research, professional connections and practices.

– To support visual arts studio practice. It is important to note that this opportunity is not focused on exhibition making for IMMA

Why Now?  Substantial cuts in arts funding since 2008 have had a devastating effect on supports available directly to contemporary artists. Arts organisations such as IMMA have also seen cuts of close to 50% in their state funding resulting in fewer acquisitions for public collections, fewer commissions of new work and reduced artist fees. Overall these combined cuts create an overwhelming reduction in the funding that institutions such as IMMA can use to directly support artists. The commercial art market in Ireland also faces considerable challenges. 

As organisations slowly start to rebuild after years of successive cuts it is essential that IMMA is able to actively support Irish artists so that Ireland will remain a viable place for them to live and work into the future. If not, the effect of their loss will be felt for generations to come.

The IMMA 1000 fund has raised €120,000 across year 1 (April 2016 – April 2017). These funds are being directed in three ways:

1) Three new acquisitions for the National collection; The weakening eye of day, 2014 by Isabel Nolan, A Reflection on Light, 2015 by Grace Weir and Meaning of Greatness, 2006 by Sarah Pierce 

2) Four new residencies at IMMA with associated bursaries for artists. These include one year-long bursary, with a stipend of €10,000 and three 6-month long residencies to the value of €12,000 each. The IMMA 1000 residencies commence in 2017 and have been programmed through a combination of open call and invitation-based processes. 

3) Ongoing support of Irish artists to make and present new work throughout the IMMA programme. In 2016 IMMA 1000 funds enabled work by Irish artists in the major collaborative project A Fair Land, presented with Grizedale Arts, Irish artists in the residency programme, including Aideen Barry, and commissions by Irish artists Duncan Campbell and Jaki Irvine, both of which have since been acquired for the National Collection with additional support from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. In 2017 IMMA 1000 funds have supported IMMA’s work with Irish artists Alan Butler, Eoghan Ryan, David Beattie and Vivienne Dick.

IMMA (the Irish Museum of Modern Art) is Ireland’s national institution of contemporary and modern art. The second most visited free attraction in Ireland (2016) IMMA is celebrated for its vibrant and dynamic exhibition and engagement and learning programmes.

IMMA is the home of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. Now numbering over 3,500 works, IMMA ensure’s that this collection is accessible to visitors to IMMA and beyond through exhibitions, collaborations, loans, touring partnerships and digital programmes. Visited by over 580,000 people in 2016, IMMA is one of Ireland’s leading cultural institutions and a key source of creativity and inspiration for visitors of all walks of life. One out of every ten IMMA visitors experience visual art for the first time through their IMMA visit and it is hugely important to us to create an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art for everyone. We are driven to inspire a curiosity and appreciation of Irish contemporary art amongst our audience and the wider Irish public.

Above all else we are committed to supporting artists’ work. Together with artists and other partners we work to support the development of contemporary art in Ireland. As Ireland’s contemporary visual artists continue to strengthen their work is increasingly recognised on the international stage, as well as making an invaluable contribution to contemporary Irish society. Artists are a key voice in any contemporary society and IMMA is committed to supporting Irish artists’ ability to live and work in Ireland.