Em’kal Eyongakpa
Due to unforeseen circumstances the artist is no longer able to take part in this discussion.
Sandra Joyce
Dr Sandra Joyce is Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. She is also currently Course Director of the MA Irish Music Studies at the Academy. Her research interests include the Irish harp and song traditions, historical ethnomusicology and, most recently, environmental humanities. Together with Helen Lawlor, she is editor of Harp Studies: Perspectives on the Irish Harp (Four Courts Press, 2016), with a second volume focusing on international harp practices to be published shortly. Sandra is also a member of the Irish Humanities Alliance Environmental Humanities Working Group. A traditional singer and bodhrán player, she has performed all over the world, most recently in Boston, Washington DC, Beijing and Shanghai (pre-pandemic!). She also performed in recent live-streamed and pre-recorded events for the Blas Summer School/North Atlantic Fiddle Convention 2021, as well as for the Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon in November 2021.
Matt Packer
Matt Packer is the Director/CEO of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art. Previous roles include Director, CCA Centre For Contemporary Art Derry-Londonderry (2014 – 2017); Associate Director, Treignac Projet (2013-2016); Curator of Exhibitions & Projects, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork (2008 – 2013). In an independent capacity, he curated numerous exhibitions and projects, including: They Call Us The Screamers, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2017); and Disappearing Acts, Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway (2015) (with Arne Skaug Olsen). He was part of the selection committee for the British representation at the Venice Biennale 2017 and is an advisor on the What Could / Should Curating Do? educational programme in Belgrade. He is co-founder of Occasional Groundworks – a network partnership of EVA International, GIBCA (Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art ), and LIAF (Lofoten International Art Festival) – that is rethinking the smaller-scale biennial model within the regional European context. He also contributes a regular column on themes of internationalism for VAN (Visual Artists’ News Sheet) and has previously written for magazines including Frieze, Kaleidoscope, and Concreta.
Rachael Gilbourne is Assistant Curator: Exhibitions – Projects and Partnerships, IMMA and is co-curator of Em’kal Eyongakpa, Mámbáy bebhɛp 43t / besáŋ berat / bakay nɛkɔ.
Janice Hough is Assistant Curator: Residency & Artists’ Programmes, IMMA and is co-curator of Em’kal Eyongakpa, Mámbáy bebhɛp 43t / besáŋ berat / bakay nɛkɔ.