Project Arts Centre presents
It’s that time of year again! We’re throwing open the doors of the big blue building and inviting you to join us for our annual Open Day, a free, day-long event for artists, audiences and communities.
We can’t wait to welcome you!
About our Annual Open Day
We have made a commitment to ‘hospitality’ as a philosophical starting point for the changes we want to make at Project. We want to make sure that the big blue building continues to grow as an important space for engaging new audiences and public curiosity.
Following the success of our first annual Open Day last year – we’re delighted to open our doors again, and to offer a real taste of Project with an exciting line-up of live performance, delicious bites, dance, DJs, films, workshops, talks, tours and more…
This year’s Open Day will commence with a ‘Quiet Opening’, placing a specific focus on disability and gender diversity. From 12-2pm, the building will hold space for artists, audiences and communities who would benefit from a sensory-adapted environment.
Project welcomes everyone who would like to attend this section of the day. Audiences are asked to wear a mask to protect our immunocompromised artists and audience members.
From 2-5pm, the building will be activated through a series of events including live dance, workshops, screenings and DJs.
Check out the full programme below!
12pm – 2pm | Quiet Opening
12-12:15PM | LOWER FOYER
LIANNE QUIGLEY
LIVE ISL INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE
Lianne Quigley, a Deaf artist, tells stories through visual language (Visual Vernacular), expressive movements of the hands, and lyricism in the body.
12 – 1PM | CUBE | CHRONIC COLLECTIVE
ÁINE O’HARA & TARA CARROLL
TALK AND PRESENTATION
Making art accessible to all is a radical act. Join Chronic Collective as they offer a look at what they do and how they do it followed by an open discussion on access in the arts.
1-2PM | GALLERY
LÉANN HERLIHY
FILM SCREENING & TALK
Léann Herlihy will present a gentle screening of segments from their docu-film Beyond Survival (2022) followed by an open-conversation.
1-2PM | CUBE
DAY MAGEE
FILM SCREENING AND TALK
Day Magee presents a screening of their film Ophelio followed by a short discussion on the making of this work and their work more broadly.
1-2PM | SPACE UPSTAIRS
RENN MIANO | QUEER CRIP FITS
Queer Crip Fits is a joyful space for LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities to talk about and experience fashion as a creative expression, as armour, and as a way to accentuate individual identity, in defiance of heteronormative and ableist aesthetics.
Individuals will be styled and celebrated in a swap shop event from 1pm – 2pm.
Styled by Renn Miano.
Please bring something fabulous that you no longer wear. Masks are required for this event in order to give our immunocompromised pals space to celebrate too!!
2-2:30PM | BAR & OUTSIDE AREA
SOCIALLY DISTANCED BRUNCH
An opportunity to meet like-minded people over refreshments!
2PM – 5PM | The Afternoon Sessions…
2-3PM | SPACE UPSTAIRS
FAVOUR ODUSOLA + DANCERS
Favour Odusola and dancers will lead an Afro Dance promenade through the building to the Space Upstairs, where he will lead an open level workshop not to be missed!!
2-3PM | GALLERY
KIAN BENSON BAILES | WORKSHOP
Join us in the gallery for an open, intergenerational clay workshop and casual artist talk with Kian Benson Bailes. This playful workshop will explore ceramics processes and techniques to make the “fairy whistles” that form part of his recent work.
2-4PM | CUBE
GRÚPA
Irish-based creative community Grúpa will activate Project’s Cube space with photography, videography and performance throughout the afternoon.
3-4PM | SPACE UPSTAIRS
JESSIE THOMPSON
Improvisation workshop and performance – Jessie draws on her practice of Contemporary and Hip Hop styles to explore a range of tools open to dancers from any background (beginners welcome)
3-5PM | GALLERY
TROPICAL MALADY – FILM SCREENING
Apichatpong Weerasethkul’s classic of queer Thai cinema takes us from a nascent romance between a soilder and a country boy, to a folktale of a threatening, shapeshifting shaman being hunted through the jungle. As part of the public programme for Kian Benson Bailes’ Culchie Boy, I Love You, join us for this Cannes Jury Prize winner and recent entry to the BFI’s Greatest Films of All Time.
4-5PM | SPACE UPSTAIRS
PROJECT ARTISTS – FILM SCREENING
A special screening of award winning Dance on Film by Project artists. Join us for Junk Ensemble’s Fallow Table and In Velvet, as well as Shaun Dunne’s Over/Pass and Dúirt Tú (you said).
2-5pm | LOWER FOYER
CLUB COMFORT
BOOK LAUNCH & DJ SET
Club Comfort will keep the ground floor dancing with a live DJ set and the launch of a new publication, exploring the history of clubbing in Dublin.
ACCESSIBILITY
Access is a priority at Project and we want make sure that our welcome is extended to everyone. Throughout the day we will have an access liaison, as well as dedicated rest areas and reserved seating for performances.
The Open Day will begin with a ‘Quiet Opening’, placing a specific focus on disability and gender diversity. From 12-2pm, the building will hold space for artists, audiences and communities who would benefit from a sensory adapted environment. Project welcomes everyone who would like to attend this section of the day. Audiences are asked to wear a mask to protect our imunocompromised artists and audience members. Masks will be available at Project.
All of our film work with be captioned and where possible live performance will be interpreted through ISL. Our building is fully accessible to Wheelchair users.
If you have any specific requirements or would like to visit the space in advance of the Open Day, please contact Cathy at cathy@projectartscentre.ie or you can call to receive a consultation. You can find more information on accessibility at Project here.
Accessibility
Access is a priority at Project and we want make sure that our welcome is extended to everyone. Throughout the day we will have an access liaison, as well as dedicated rest areas and reserved seating for performances.
The Open Day will begin with a ‘Quiet Opening’, placing a specific focus on disability and gender diversity. From 12-2pm, the building will hold space for artists, audiences and communities who would benefit from a sensory adapted environment. Project welcomes everyone who would like to attend this section of the day. Audiences are asked to wear a mask to protect our imunocompromised artists and audience members. Masks will be available at Project.
All of our film work with be captioned and where possible live performance will be interpreted through ISL. Our building is fully accessible to Wheelchair users.
If you have any specific requirements or would like to visit the space in advance of the Open Day, please contact Cathy at cathy@projectartscentre.ie or you can call to receive a consultation. You can find more information on accessibility at Project here.
Credits
Video by Fruit Frame Media
Biographies
Lianne Quigley is the Artistic Director of the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf. She is a Deaf activist and was one of the leaders in the campaign for the legal recognition of her language, Irish Sign Language (ISL), passed into law in 2017. Quigley is also chairperson of the Irish Deaf Society, the Deaf-lead civil rights organisation.
Chronic Collective is a multidisciplinary art collective with a strong focus on accessibility in the arts. The collective is run by two queer and chronically ill artists, Tara Carroll and Áine O’Hara. They work to create spaces, events and opportunities for sick and disabled artists and audiences to engage in art and culture in Ireland as well as working alongside cultural organisations and venues to improve their physical and structural barriers.
They have been funded by the arts council and have worked with venues and organisations like Pallas Projects, A4 Sounds Studios, Fire Station Artists Studios and the Museum of Everyone.
Léann Herlihy (they/them) is an artist, researcher and educator based in Dublin. Their practice is informed by trans*, queer ecological, feminist and abolitionist theoretical frameworks which deploys alternative modalities of expression through an array of mediums including live performance, video, billboards, sculpture, text, workshops and radical pedagogies.
Léann Herlihy is the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Artist Award [2022], Visual Arts Bursary [2021] & Agility Award [2021 – 2022] as well as being awarded a Project Studio [2021-22] at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
Day Magee (They/Them) is a performance-centred multimedia artist and writer based in Dublin. They have performed since 2011 as part of Livestock and the Dublin Live Art Festival, and graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design in Sculpture & Combined Media in 2021, during their time there staging group live art events managing the Evil Collective. By their penultimate year they had exhibited as part of TULCA Festival, group shows across Ireland and abroad, as well as being nominated for the Future Generation Art Prize 2020 its Irish partner platform Pallas Projects/ Studios, and shortlisted for the RDS Visual Arts Awards.
Upon graduating they were commissioned by Arts & Disability Ireland, as well as staging their first solo show Contraindications of the Cross in Pallas Projects/Studios in 2022. Most recently they have been commissioned by Aine Philips at Interface Inagh, completed a residency with Museum of Everyone at the Lab Gallery in Dublin, written regularly for Visual Artists New Sheet, as well as hosting and developing regular performance workshops Bodyjam at Kirkos Ensemble.
Renn Miano is a dj/writer, photographer, archivist & anti disciplinary artist and cultural curator. Founder of Origins Eile a Black Queer community collective. DJ with CO-OP label DIAxDEM
Renn is a mentor and mess maker. If they aren’t burning jazzed up pizza they can be found by the sea or watching real housewives of potomac.
Favour Odusola (Proud African King) is a Nigerian Irish multidisciplinary artist who has worked across several contexts from traditional dance & percussion to commercial work and contemporary theatre for over 15 years in Europe (Ireland and London), Africa (Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria), and UAE (Dubai).
Josué dos Reis is a Brazilian urban dancer from Salvador, Bahia – home to the largest African diaspora population. Josué started dancing at the age of 13, and performed professionally on the street with his father in a theatrical dance routine that opened the door to his artistic expression. Dance became a portal to performing with street choreographers & popular music shows, earning his living in commercial dance since his teens.
Juan Gabriel is a 20 year old Filipino-Irish self-taught dancer from Finglas. His goal is to create and inspire others with movement and to move for a higher purpose.
Born in Brazil in 1988, Yves Lorrhan is a dancer who has had dance in his life since he was 9 years old, and during these 24 years of movement, his technical base is ballroom dancing, but he brings physical experiences with dance. Contemporary, ballet and afro dance. He believes that we all have dance inside us and that through it, we can have a more humane society.
Kian Benson Bailes is an Irish artist residing in the northwest of Ireland. His multifaceted practice explores rural Ireland, visual language and identity. Recent exhibitions include ‘Inverts on the castle wall, Perverts in the tall grass below’, at Custom House Studios & Gallery, Co. Mayo, and ‘Bog Cottage: Life in the Community’ at Periphery Space, Co. Wexford.
In 2019 Hope Bello and Michael D’angelo founded a community of creatives, including visual artists, photographers, videographers, designers and dancers. The aim of the community organization was to support young ambitious ceatives, from diverse backgrounds, through a series of in-person networking events across different regions around Ireland and to promote work online under one digital identity – Grúpa. Recently nominated by Black&Irish for a Community of the Year Award, Grúpa hosts recurring events to facilitate collective experience and further development of artistic skills.
Jessie Thompson works as a professional dancer, choreographer and movement director across live performance and film as well as teaching and mentoring multidisciplinary artists. Over the past two years, Jessie has been awarded several times from both Arts Council Ireland and Dance Ireland, Galway Dance Project , Fingal Artists Support Scheme and Dance Base Scotland for further artistic development. Jessie Thompson was commissioned by Dublin Dance Festival and Top 8 Streetdance Platform for Dancescapes At Dublin Dance Festival 2022 and Originate platform 2023 with her working solo dance piece “CRAWLER” with collaborator Jason McNamara. Jessie has also presented other short indoor and outdoor Dance works at Festivals such as Dance2Connect both Uk and Leeds, Made in Darndale festival, Liberty Vibe, Top 8 street dance platform Dublin & Limerick and Mermaid Arts Centre Pop Up Platform.
Jessie Performed in “Night Dances” by Emma Martin /United Fall in Dublin Thestre Festival 2021 and Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022 and was one of the Chosen Choreographers for Liz Roche Lighting Design and Dance programme 2022. Some other credits Include, “Untethered” Dancer From the Dance Festival 2022, collaborations with companies such OnetwoOneTwo, TasteinYourMouth, Monica Munoz and more aswell as being heavily immersed in the Irish Street Dance Community and Commercial Industry choreographing for Irish Artists such as Denise Chaila, Gemma Dunleavy, Kynsy, Talos and Loah and creating her own Dance Battle/Event Platform Battle of Zen.
Junk Ensemble was founded in Dublin in 2004 by twin sisters Megan and Jessica Kennedy. The company is committed to engaging diverse audiences through the creation and presentation of brave, imaginative and accessible work that sheds light on important human issues relevant to society today. Associate Artists at Project Arts Centre and previous Artists-in-Residence at Tate Britain, Junk Ensemble is a multi-award winning company that has built a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading voices in dance. Junk Ensemble frequently collaborates with artists from other disciplines to produce a rich mix of visual and performance styles that challenge the traditional audience/performer relationship. This approach has led to productions being created in non-traditional or found spaces as well as more conventional theatre spaces. The company often work directly with communities in the creation and performance of their work. Their work has toured to New York, Europe, and throughout the U.K. and Ireland.
Previous works include RITUAL (Cork Midsummer Festival 2023), The Cold Sings (Dublin Theatre Festival 2022), Crossing Skin (Cairde Sligo Arts Festival 2022), Dances Like a Bomb (Dublin Dance Festival 2022), The Misunderstanding of Myrrha (Dublin Dance Festival 2021), The Veiled Ones (Baboró International Arts Festival for Children 2021/Dublin Fringe Festival 2021), A Different Wolf (Cork Opera House/Cork Midsummer Festival 2019), The Bystander (Dublin Theatre Festival 2018), Dolores (Dublin Dance Festival 2018), Man at the Door (Number 54) / Cork Midsummer Festival 2018), Soldier Still (National Tour 2018/Belfast Festival/Dublin Fringe 2017), Walking Pale (GPO Witness History Commission/Dublin Dance Festival 2016), It Folds a joint production with Brokentalkers (Edinburgh Festival 2016/Mayfest Bristol 2016/Dublin Fringe, Abbey Theatre 2015), Dusk Ahead (NYC La MaMa
Moves Festival 2015/National Tour 2015/Dublin Theatre Festival 2013/Kilkenny Arts Festival 2013), The Falling Song (8-venue UK & National Tour 2014/Belfast Festival 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2012), Bird with Boy (UK Tour 2016/Dublin Theatre Festival 2012/Dublin Fringe Festival 2011), Sometimes We Break (Tate Commission 2012), Five Ways to Drown (National Tour 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2010), Pygmalian Revisited (Áix-en-Provence Festival Commission 2010), Drinking Dust (2008), and The Rain Party (2007).
Music and nightlife collective Club Comfort has been active in Dublin since 2017. Founded by local DJs and producers Baliboc, Selky and Roo Honeychild, Club Comfort is known for their boundary-pushing sensibility in music and queer party culture. In 2019 the collective produced Comfort Carnival at the National Stadium as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, a one day festival of music and art. 2023 sees them producing Mesh Net, a publication reflecting on the culture around them, alongside Comfort Carnival: Coda, another day long event returning to the scene of the crime to present the latest shifts in the contemporary Irish underground.
Funding
Project Arts Centre is proudly supported by The Arts Council and Dublin City Council.