Resort Residency – Revelations Programme returns to the Donabate/Portrane Peninsula
Resort Residency – Revelations Programme returns to the Donabate/Portrane Peninsula from the 8th – 10th of October. Resort Residency is Fingal County Council’s Arts Office's unique artist programme located at Lynders Mobile Home Park, Portrane.
Resort Residency – Revelations Programme returns to the Donabate/Portrane Peninsula from the 8th – 10th of October. Resort Residency is Fingal County Council’s Arts Office's unique artist programme located at Lynders Mobile Home Park, Portrane. Since 2015 it has played host to over 40 Irish artists who have all been inspired to make work that responds to the local area, this work has reached local audiences and beyond.
In 2020/2021 we invited artists from the Other People’s Practices (OPP) programme of artist residencies in the National Forensic Mental Health Service (NFMHS) – Emma Finucane, Glenn Loughran, Johnathan Cummins, and the programmes director John Conway. These artists visited Portrane with a very specific enquiry – to explore a follow on to the work that they have undertaken at the NFMHS, which will now re-locate to a state-of-the-art campus adjacent to St. Ita’s hospital in Portrane. The artists worked directly with the hospital’s clients at various stages of their recovery journey and together they developed work which focused on their individual experiences of this context.
The workshops and the processes delivered by the artists during their OPP residencies sought to foster feelings of collective joy and autonomy through art within an institution that is also looking after the clinical priorities. Resort Residency allowed these artists reflect on the experiences and observations as arts practitioners in the NFMHS and explore possibilities to continue their practice in and around its new home on the Portrane Peninsula. St. Ita’s has been a strong influence on all the visiting artists to Portrane, culturally and historically it has provided a strong sense of place and community.
Mayor of Fingal Cllr Seána O’Rodaigh, commented on the importance of public art saying “ Art has such a valuable role in placemaking and our collective wellbeing and I am thrilled to see that a vibrant range of community arts activity is animating all of our towns and villages in Fingal."
Emer O’Gorman, Director of Services EETCD, explained “This is an innovative example of how a local business has significantly added to the destination potential of this beautiful area of Donabate/Portrane through art.”
Caroline Cowley, Public Art Co-ordinator expressed how “ The work developed and presented for this year’s Resort Revelations Programme seeks to bring some of the positive messages from inside recovery journeys into local view to remind us of the value that art can bring to our own wellbeing”.
As Part of Resort Residency/Revelations 2021 we are delighted to present Future Happiness: a diverse array of new work encountered in a promenade style circuit around Donabate & Portrane. The show features several new works, some of which were developed with service users during artist residencies in Usher's Island, a community centre for patients of the NFMHS. This includes a series of work that explores NFMHS service users relationship to institutional care titled Compliance/Insight by artist Jonathan Cummins, a site specific exploration of the local community's historical affiliation with mental healthcare and the sea through communal action in a work titled Float by artist Emma Finucane, an aural reflection on local histories and labour cultures titled Parasite Radio by artist Glenn Loughran, and an optimistic yet Swiftian invitation to look forward, which is also a prompt for us to consider the present in a new artwork by John Conway titled Future Happiness.
As part of this exhibition, on Tuesday 5th October from 10.00 -11.00 and Saturday 9th October from 15.00 -17.00 St Ita's Hospital Radio will broadcast an interview with John Conway discussing the Future Happiness exhibition as well as 3 short audio documentaries produced with family members of patients and former patients of the NFHMS which give an insight into the lived experience of forensic mental healthcare (available worldwide online and locally on 89.5FM).
The works of Future Happiness will be located at Lynders Mobile Home Park, Portrane Castle, (Stella’s Tower), The cliff walk, Pipers Chip Shop, St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Church, Donabate & Grogan’s shop Portrane. The full programme will launch Friday 8th October at 7pm at Lynders Mobile Home Park and guests will have the opportunity to visit the artworks with the artists and gain insight on the night via a guided tour. For full details on Resort Residency and updates.
Visit: www.resortresidency.com and www.otherpeoplespractices.com
Contact: Caroline Cowley, Public Art Co-ordinator – E: [email protected] P:01 8708449