John Coolahan Early Years Artist Residency

This opportunity (for professional artists of all disciplines) recognises the importance of the arts in early childhood and aims to nurture and support the development of professional artists working in this emerging sector of arts practice. To this end, this new Early Years Artist’s Residency began with the first artist in 2018. We have establised this as an annual opportunity with a different artist being selected to take up the residency each year. The call out details for the second year of the residency is open now.

Background:
This artist residency opportunity has been established in honour of John Coolahan, who sadly passed away earlier this year. John was a longstanding member of The Ark board and a leading champion for arts education in Ireland.

Beginning in 2018, this residency aims to honour the legacy of Professor Coolahan by providing the selected artist with a yearlong opportunity to develop his/her early years arts practice in association with The Ark.

This opportunity recognises the importance of the arts in early childhood and aims to nurture and support the development of professional artists working in this emerging sector of arts practice.

As producing venue, The Ark is committed to providing a vibrant regular engagement in our year round programme for our early years audiences. We are also strongly committed to supporting the development of artists who work with children as part of their practice. In line with our current strategy, this residency aims to weave together both of these key aspects of The Ark’s work in the form of this exciting long term opportunity.

The Opportunity:
This residency is for professional artists with an existing early years practice who were interested in the opportunities and benefits of a long-term residency to develop their career and deepen the range of their experience, knowledge and practice with this age group. In 2018/19, visual artist Lucy Hill was our inaugral Early Years Artist in Residence. For the second year of the residence, we are looking for an artist working in the fields of dance, theatre or music.

A key part of the residency will involve the chosen artist developing and leading of a series of early years workshops through monthly engagements.

During the residency, the artist will also be given opportunities for further development, support and learning in the form of mentoring and travel/training (within a modest budget limitation). The artist will be asked to research and propose ideas for both of those aspects of the residency as relevant to their particular practice and what they would like to gain from the residency.

Aspects of the residency in year one will be delivered in association/partnership with Dublin City Council Arts Office.