Fingal County Council and The RHA Studio Award Opportunity 2023

Fingal County Council Arts Office in partnership with the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) School, are offering an opportunity of a funded studio space for a professional artist for the period of one year; the residency will commence at the end of September 2023. The award offers an artist the opportunity to develop their practice within the institutional framework of the RHA and covers the cost of studio rental and administration. The award is open to practising artists at all stages in their professional careers working in visual art. To be eligible to apply, applicants must: have been born, have studied, or currently reside in the Fingal administrative area.

Artists wishing to be considered should apply by completing the application form on the RHA’s website www.rhagallery.ie

The deadline for applications is Monday 7th August 2023 at 4.00pm. Any questions or requests for further information can be forwarded to [email protected]

Additional Information

Eleanor McCaughey was the successful recipient of this residency award in 2022; she is a visual artist with a multidisciplinary practice including painting, sculpture, video and sound.

McCaughey's work is tactile, handmade with an importance on its shifting materiality. Both painting and sculpture reveal traces of performance and activity via the brush stroke, mark making and molding. It is important to McCaughey that these qualities lend a semiotic dimension to the work, emitting a certain presence when the author isn't in the room.

Eleanor McCaughey said on being awarded last year, “The Fingal County Council and RHA Studio Award will be crucial and instrumental to the planning, research and development of future projects. The support from Fingal County Council and the RHA will be invaluable to me in pushing a multi-faceted and experimental practice.”

During her time in the Fingal RHA Studio Residency McCaughey has been researching and developing a new visual language that deals with themes of belonging, displacement, and loss of faith, looking at theological and cosmic notions through experimentation.

Born in Dublin, Ireland. Eleanor McCaughey studied at TU, Dublin. Selected exhibitions include Forget your cares, sow your wild oats, sin is a wonderful disease, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, 2023, 'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain'  The Complex, 2022 ,Bones in the attic, Hugh Lane Gallery,2022, Woman in the machine, Visual Carlow, 2021, Super Market Art Fair, Stockholm, 2021,  2020, Vignettes, Richard Heller Gallery, LA USA, 2019 . Eleanor McCaughey is a recipient of the Fingal County Council Bursary 20,21,22, Arts Council Ireland Bursary Award 20,21,22, The Temple Bar Project Award 2021, and the Next Generation Award 2018.

Image Credit

'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain' 2023

 Installation for 'Portals', Luan Gallery, Athlone. Curated by Aoife Banks.

The RHA School is a purpose-built facility within the RHA Gallery consisting of individual studios, open plan drawing studios and a library. It is an artist-led space for the provision of skill-based learning in Visual Art. Central to the RHA Schools activity is peer learning where knowledge and experience can be passed from artist to artist. The RHA School supports both traditional and contemporary approaches to art making and its offerings aim to enhance the skill set of artists working in the varied and shifting arena of current art practice.

The RHA School is for professional artists who wish to up-skill or re-engage with their practice, third level students who wish to develop and practice skills in drawing, painting and creative use of materials. It is also for professional artists who wish to acquire specialised knowledge. The RHA School responds to these aims with a varied programme that includes drawing groups, residencies, workshops, masterclasses, seminars and public lectures.

www.fingalarts.ie                       www.fingal.ie/arts              www.rhagallery.ie