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Events + Teaching

Past and upcoming events


Writing From The Body @ Irish Writer's Centre
Jun
29
to 20 Jul

Writing From The Body @ Irish Writer's Centre

In this course, you will explore the body as both a contested site and a potent source of knowledge. Through a diverse range of readings and exercises, you’ll analyse novels and stories that are directly shaped by embodied experience, and experiment with different approaches to writing these experiences that so often evade descriptive language.

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Young Writer Delegates Showcase
Nov
15
7:00 pm19:00

Young Writer Delegates Showcase

Presented by the Irish Writers Centre

Join our four selected IWC/DBF Young Writer Delegates as they share creative work developed during the festival with mentor Sue Rainsford.

Now in its fourth year, the Irish Writers Centre Young Writer Delegate Programme has partnered once again with the Dublin Book Festival. Four writers between the ages of 18 and 26 will be welcomed to the programme by the Irish Writers Centre. The writers will attend a variety of events at Dublin Book Festival and will be encouraged to reflect on their experiences. Their mentor Sue Rainsford will lead the writers in a series of workshops as well as providing informal advice and guidance on succeeding in and enjoying life as a writer.

At this showcase, our four selected IWC/DBF Young Writer Delegates Abby Connolly, Eilish Mulholland, Kel Menton and Róisín Ní Riain will share some of the creative work developed during the festival.

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In Conversation with Isabel Nolan & Francis McKee
Aug
21
1:00 pm13:00

In Conversation with Isabel Nolan & Francis McKee

Enjoy a recording of readings and conversation with artist Isabel Nolan, fiction and arts writer Sue Rainsford and writer, curator and Director of CCA, Glasgow, Francis McKee from August 21st, 2021, following Nolan’s solo exhibition at Solstice A delicate bond which is also a gap. The conversation begins with an introduction and reading by Sue Rainsford, followed by Isabel Nolan’s reading and a conversation between the speakers led by Francis McKee. The event ends with a Q&A led by Solstice Director Belinda Quirke.

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  The Artist Statement: an overview + approaches
Oct
19
11:00 am11:00

The Artist Statement: an overview + approaches

In this three and a half hour workshop we’ll consider a range of approaches to composing the artist statement,  moving between the concise and functional to the experimental and explorative.

Working with texts by a diverse range of artists and art writers, this session is designed to equip you with a template you can work from in the future and with an understanding of how writing and reading can function as tools of inquiry within your practice.

Book your place here.

Workshop Online via Zoom

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Caroline Bergvall | an artist talk at Maynooth University followed by a conversation with writer-in-residence  sue rainsford
Mar
10
2:00 pm14:00

Caroline Bergvall | an artist talk at Maynooth University followed by a conversation with writer-in-residence sue rainsford

1.33 Iontas Building

Maynooth University

Tuesday 10th March 2020

3-5pm

Caroline Bergvall is an international poet, artist, and performer who works across art-forms, media, and languages. Projects alternate between books and printed matter, performances, site-specific installations and sound-works. The recipient of many arts commissions, awards, and fellowships, she is a noted exponent of writing and performance methods adapted to contemporary audiovisual and contextual situations, as well as multilingual identities. Her latest book Alisoun Sings (2019) is the final volume in a trilogy of works (following Meddle English in 2011 and Drift in 2014) using medieval and contemporary sources and languages. She is performing her sunrise performance Ragadawn as part of Galway 2020 in March ’20.

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know i am a wolf | Spring Seminar Series @ ACW NCAD
Feb
21
to 27 Mar

know i am a wolf | Spring Seminar Series @ ACW NCAD

Two new contributors to the MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World: novelist Sue Rainsford and curator Dr. Judith Wilkinson.

We are very pleased to welcome two new contributors to MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World this semester: novelist Sue Rainsford and curator Dr.Judith Wilkinson. Sue will lead a seminar series on experimental writing — looking at speculative fictions, hybrid forms, marginalised artists — and Judith will deliver several extended sessions (plus a public event) exploring the influence of Samuel Beckett on the work of contemporary artists.

We have a limited number of places available for guests who might want to participate in these classes and get a taste of the MA Art in the Contemporary World experience. Please contact the programme team for more information.

The MA/MF Art in the Contemporary World at the National College of Art & Design, Ireland, offers an opportunity for focused engagement with the varied challenges of today’s most ambitious art and critical thinking — bridging the relationship between theory and practice by creating study options for writers, theorists, curators, and artists. The course can be taken on a full-time or part-time basis, and participants can choose to either work towards a 90 credit MA or a 120 credit MFA, incorporating extended research or practical projects. We're currently accepting applications — so, once again, if you're interested, get in touch.

Sue Rainsford is a fiction and arts writer. Her practice is concerned with explicit fusions of critical and corporeal inquiry, as well as with questions of transcription and otherness. She is a recipient of the VAI/DCC Art Writing Award, the Arts Council Literature Bursary Award, The Freud Project Residency at IMMA and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. Her debut novel, Follow Me To Ground, received the Kate O’Brien Award and was long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Award. Sue is currently writer in residence at Maynooth University and her second novel, Redder Days, is forthcoming with Doubleday Books.

Dr Judith Wilkinson is a writer and researcher at Tate. She has written for The Guardian, Frieze, Tate Etc., Afterall, Apollo, Canadian Art, Irish Arts Review and the Journal of Beckett Studies, among numerous other academic and contemporary art publications. Her forthcoming book Samuel Beckett: Contemporary Artist (Bloomsbury 2021) examines Beckett as a practicing artist working in sound, moving-image, performance and installation art.

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RTE Radio 1 Arena Live Show @ Dublin Book Festival
Nov
15
7:00 am07:00

RTE Radio 1 Arena Live Show @ Dublin Book Festival

With Kevin Barry,  Siobhán McSweeney, Sue Rainsford and Patrick Freyne

In Conversation with Seán Rocks

Friday 15 November

Time: 7.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre

€10/€8 concession, Booking advised

 

Join us for an evening of conversation and music with RTE Radio 1’s cultural guru Sean Rocks in conversation with Kevin Barry and contributors to the new edition of Winter Papers including actor Siobhan McSweeney,  writers Sue Rainsford, Patrick Freyne and more! Now in its fifth volume, Winter Papers is an annual anthology for the arts in Ireland and beyond.  Featuring fiction, essays, photography, visual art, along with artist in-conversation pieces, its annual publication is an eagerly anticipated event.

 

BOOK NOW

Kevin Barry is the author of three novels and two story collections.  He also writes plays and screenplays. He lives in Co Sligo.

Siobhán McSweeney trained at Central School of Speech & Drama, London and Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Paris. She has worked at the Royal Court, RSC, National Theatre, Donmar, The Abbey and The Lyric, Belfast. TV and film credits include; Derry Girls, Porters, Extra Ordinary, The Fall, No Offence, and London Irish.

Sue Rainsford is a recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary Award, the VAI/DCC Art Writing Award and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. Her debut novel, Follow Me To Ground, received the Kate O’Brien Award. She is Writer-in-Residence at Maynooth University.

Patrick Freyne is a writer of journalism, essays and stories. He works for the Irish Times and his work has appeared in the Dublin Review and Banshee. A collection of his essays will be published by Penguin Ireland in 2020.

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Irish Book Week | Reading | Wendy Erskine, Adrian Duncan and Sue Rainsford
Oct
26
3:00 pm15:00

Irish Book Week | Reading | Wendy Erskine, Adrian Duncan and Sue Rainsford

As part of Irish Book Week, join us for an afternoon of readings in Dublin's famous Hodges Figgis and gain a fascinating insight into the writing processes of three contemporary debut writers.

Sue Rainsford will read from Follow Me to Ground, her "seethingly assured" debut novel (The Guardian).

Adrian Duncan will read from his own debut, Love Notes from a German Building Site, which was recently released in the UK by Head of Zeus and hailed by the Irish Times as "a captivating debut".

Wendy Erskine, nominated for the Edge Hill Prize 2019, will read from her debut collection of short stories, Sweet Home.

Register here.

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 Irish Glass Biennale 2019 | Symposium + Writing Workshop
Oct
24
9:00 am09:00

Irish Glass Biennale 2019 | Symposium + Writing Workshop

Critical Practices: Making, Writing, Curating, Educating

The Museum is delighted to host, in conjunction with the Glass Society of Ireland, the Irish Glass Biennale 2019 Jury Speakers' Symposium on Thursday, October 24.

This selection of talks forms part of a two-day symposium and exhibition, which will open at the Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle Garden, on October 23.

Symposium speakers include Diane C. Wright, Curator of Glass and Decorative Arts at the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States, and Paula Stokes, Artist and Co-Founder of the METHOD gallery, Seattle, United States.

Writing workshops on vocabularies of writing about making to be led by Dr. Francis Halsall and writer Sue Rainsford. 

This event will be run in conjunction with the Ireland Glass Biennale 2019 exhibition, in the Coach House at Dublin Castle as part of Creative Europe Project: ISGNE.

Booking required. Email bookings@museum.ie.

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How to Write About Your Artwork @ Garter Lane Arts Centre
Oct
19
to 20 Oct

How to Write About Your Artwork @ Garter Lane Arts Centre

Writing about your work is an essential element of your art practice. Covering such topics as proposals, funding applications and statements for press and marketing purposes, this session will equip participants with a core text to work from, develop and adapt in the future.

Over the course of the day, we will work interactively to produce texts that address the concepts, approaches and methodologies particular to your work. In addition to concise, accessible language, we will also consider writing as a dynamic and reflective tool, exploring the more expansive, generative ways in which writing can meld with an arts practice, operating within or alongside it.

In discussing how participants might develop a long term relationship with writing that will serve their practice and its shifting demands as it develops over time, we will also cover various opportunities regarding the production of text in relation to an artwork or exhibition.

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VAI Workshop | Writing About Your Work with Sue Rainsford – Wexford
Sep
18
11:30 am11:30

VAI Workshop | Writing About Your Work with Sue Rainsford – Wexford

As an artist, you will be required to write about your work for a variety of reasons including press releases, proposals and applications. Focusing on the artist statement, this session will equip participants with a text to work from, develop and adapt in the future.

Concisely conveying core elements of your practice is essential to promoting your work and ensuring its accessibility. Covering such topics as proposals, funding applications, and statements for press and marketing purposes, we will discuss the dos and don’ts in writing statements. Over the course of the day, participants will work in an interactive way with peer supported feedback, producing texts that succinctly deliver their concepts, approaches and methodologies.

While working toward developing a concise statement, this session will also explore writing as a dynamic and reflective tool. We will consider the more expansive, generative ways in which writing can serve an arts practice, operating within or alongside it. In discussing how participants might develop a long term relationship with writing that will serve their practice and its shifting demands as it develops over time, we will also cover various opportunities regarding the production of text in relation to an artwork or exhibition.

Wednesday 18 September, 11.30am to 5.00pm.

Wexford Based Artists: €20
VAI Members (Non Wexford Based): €50
General Admission: €100

BOOK HERE

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In Conversation with Celina Muldoon @ Kevin Kavanagh Gallery
Aug
24
1:00 pm13:00

In Conversation with Celina Muldoon @ Kevin Kavanagh Gallery

Kevin Kavanagh is proud to present SIRENS Part III, an exhibition and two performances by Celina Muldoon taking place Thursday 22nd and Saturday 31st August at 7pm. Performance duration approx 25 mins. Muldoon will also be in conversation with Sue Rainsford in the gallery at 1pm Saturday 24th August.

LIVE; BALOR; ROCK; TOWER; SOUND; RALLY; FILM; KIDS; EYE,
STREAM; LIFT; CALL; DIFF; SEE; BREAST; PLAY,
POWER; RISE; ACT; DARK; CHAOS!

SIRENS Part III is the third in a series of test events. For 2 weeks in August Kevin Kavanagh Gallery will become a site of call/response; action/reaction.

SIRENS was originally conceived out of a desire to identify mythological races based around her home in Donegal and the isolated community of the North West of Ireland. What transpired was a deep exploration into our ancient cultural heritage and the supernatural sea-faring race called the Fomorians or Fomoire. Her research involved collaboration with young people in Donegal around their ideas of identity, isolation and a sense of place while living within fringe territories. Recurring topics where relationships with space, connections between landscape and escapism and rally culture.
Muldoon collaborated with writer Sue Rainsford to explore language, text and symbolism in ancient folklore and how they might translate in contemporary culture. Working with music producer Keith Mannion they tested experimental sound techniques to create a 'battle cry' or 'Siren Call' for the contemporary world. What evolved became a re-imagining of the power structures within Irish folklore to claim space through live performance, sound and text. SIRENS live installation - performance has been presented as a solo exhibition in Pallas Projects and Studios, as a Live procession from Temple Bar Gallery to The Project Arts Centre as part of LIVE COLLISION festival and will be exhibited as part of RHA FUTURESthis November.

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Cúirt International Festival of Literature
Apr
13
6:00 pm18:00

Cúirt International Festival of Literature

Debut Irish Voices

Three fresh, diverse voices in Irish fiction share a common focus on strong, isolated characters struggling to forge their own journeys. What are the roots of the Emergency that has destroyed Ireland? Last Ones Left Alive (Tinder Press) is well-known Tramp Press co-founder, Sarah Davis-Goff’s gripping first novel. Sue Rainsford’s debut, Follow Me To Ground (New Island) is a beautifully controlled, sinister tale that questions our preconceptions of predator and prey and the consequences of unchecked desire. Well-known Galway poet and short story writer, Aoibheann McCann has penned her debut novel. Marina (Wordsonthestreet) is a moving account of its eponymous central character’s solitary existence. This event will be chaired by Danny Denton, a novelist from Cork. The Earlie King & The Kid In Yellow was published by Granta Books in 2018 and was shortlisted for ‘Newcomer of the Year’ at the Irish Book Awards. Denton is also the guest editor of The Stinging Fly (Summer 2019).

Tickets available here.

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In conversation with Maeve Connolly @ Kevin Kavanagh Gallery
Apr
3
6:00 pm18:00

In conversation with Maeve Connolly @ Kevin Kavanagh Gallery


Sue Rainsford's debut novel Follow Me To Ground was released in May of last year with New Island Books. Published as a piece of literary fiction, the novel initially took root in research around such artists as Jenny Keane, Megan Eustace and Kiki Smith, and was presented as Sue’s final project for her MA in Visual Arts Practices at IADT.

Sue and writer Maeve Connolly  will discuss some of the prevalent themes in the novel, and how literary writing functions within and alongside contemporary art practices.

This conversation is very generously hosted by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery.  

*

Maeve Connolly is the author of TV Museum: Contemporary Art and the Age of Television (Intellect, 2014) and The Place of Artists’ Cinema: Space, Site and Screen (Intellect, 2009). Her writing has appeared in journals such as Afterall, Journal of Curatorial Studies, Millennium Film Journal, MIRAJ and she has authored catalogue texts on the work of numerous artists, including Vivienne Dick, Jesse Jones, Mairead O’hEocha, Bea McMahon, Niamh O'Malley, Susan Philipsz and Sarah Pierce. She co-directs the MA in Art & Research Collaboration at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology in Dublin.

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Better Words @ EVA International
Apr
2
to 10 Apr

Better Words @ EVA International

Better Words is an educational initiative by EVA International developed with support by Creative Ireland’s National Creativity Fund. The project seeks to empower children’s access and understanding of contemporary art through creative language. The project will result in the production of a children’s ‘dictionary’ or ‘glossary’ of new Contemporary Art terms, developed by school children in Limerick City and County through a series of guided workshops and artistic encounters at leading artists’ studios, museums and galleries across Ireland. Through creative facilitation and direct engagement with practicing contemporary artists and creative writers, children will be encouraged to creatively articulate their experiences of art; improving literacy and experimenting with new word-forms.

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Kate O'Brien Award
Feb
24
6:30 pm18:30

Kate O'Brien Award

The shortlist of writers for the Kate O'Brien Award 2019 has been announced. The nominees are:
Eileen Battersby, Teethmarks on my Tongue

Rebecca O'Connor, He is Mine and I Have no Other

Caroline O’Donoghue, Promising Young Women

Dervla McTiernan, The Ruin

Sue Rainsford, Follow me to Ground

The Kate O'Brien Award was established in 2015. It celebrates new Irish writing by a female author. It was established by the organising committee of the Kate O'Brien Weekend to celebrate Irish Women's Writing in memory of Kate O'Brien. It is an honorary award which celebrates debut Irish fiction; this award is a great affirmation for the debut winner and a recognition of the literary quality of the book. There is a presentation to the winner at the Limerick Literary Festival in honour of Kate O'Brien.

We celebrate the shortlisted authors and the winner on the Sunday of the Festival after the Kate O'Brien lecture with photographs and press coverage.

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Basic Talks ~ Sue Rainsford
Dec
14
1:00 pm13:00

Basic Talks ~ Sue Rainsford

Basic Space is delighted to present writer Sue Rainsford for our December BASIC TALK.

BASIC TALKS is a series of talks with leading contemporary practitioners, taking place at The Hugh Lane on the second Friday of every month. Curated by Basic Space in partnership with The Hugh Lane, BASIC TALKS is a platform for lectures, workshops, presentations, and performances. Speakers include artists, curators, writers, and critics who will generate discourse on producing, framing and exhibiting art. BASIC TALKS is a collaboration between Basic Space and The Hugh Lane, exploring alternatives in the dissemination of contemporary art and its discourses.

Admission is free but spaces are limited to 50 so please arrive promptly to avoid disappointment.

BASIC TALKS ~ Sue Rainsford, takes place in conjunction with Pallas Projects/Studios Exhibition: Periodical Review #8

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Dublin Book Festival
Nov
17
3:30 pm15:30

Dublin Book Festival

EMERGING AUTHORS SERIES II
In the second of our Emerging Authors events, expect a wealth of insights from four of Ireland’s most daring new voices. Caitriona Lally’s debut novel, Eggshells (HarperCollins), draws readers into the perspective of an eccentric, lonely woman as she wanders the streets of Dublin. Aoibheann McCann, with short story, non-fiction and poetry publications already to her name, has recently treated readers to her first novel – Marina(Wordsonthestreet), a moving account of its eponymous central character’s solitary existence. Playwright and children’s author Darragh Martin has explored new territory this year with his first novel for adults, Future Popes of Ireland (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate imprint), a searing account of a family’s escape from the control of the Catholic Church. Sue Rainsford’s debut, Follow Me To Ground(New Island), is a sinister tale that questions our preconceptions of predator and prey. The disparate voices of these four authors are drawn together by a shared focus on the isolated lives of characters who struggle to belong, and who are ultimately forced to carve their own paths. This conversation will be guided by eminent journalist Sue Leonard.

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