Louth Café: Artist & Curator Networking Event (23 Oct)

In-person event

Artists in counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan are invited to attend a day of ideas and information exchange with presentations and artist talks.

This event will be held at Creative Spark Dundalk (11am – 4pm) and includes tea and coffee from 10.30am and a networking lunch.

Part One 11am – 3pm

Artist’s Guide to funding Applications

Grants, bursaries, residencies, per cent for art commissions, project proposals… where to begin to build a successful plan.

Workshop Presenter Biography:

Dr Marianne O’Kane Boal is a well-known curator and writer on art and architecture. She has written extensively on these subjects over the past 25 years.  She writes for the Irish Arts Review, Circa, Perspective, Living Design, Visual Artists Newsletter and Architecture Ireland. She has curated over 50 exhibitions in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Marianne completed her PhD in Social Research at Atlantic Technological University Sligo in 2023. She is President of the Irish Section of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) and Expert Advisor on Art for the Ministerial Advisory Group on Architecture and the Built Environment in Northern Ireland. She has been delivering webinars and professional development workshops for Visual Artists Ireland for over fifteen years since 2009 on curating, creative proposals, presenting work, writing about practice and public art. Her research interests include art, architecture, children’s literature, the sociology of food and childhood studies. She has presented at conferences in Zurich, Prague, Chile, Belfast and Dublin.

Part Two 3pm – 4pm

Artist’s Talk with Beatrice O’ Connell : Establishing my career.

Join Dublin-based artist Beatrice O’ Connell as she shares insights into building and sustaining a career as a visual artist. Drawing from her experience as  a practicing painter, Beatrice will discuss pathways into exhibitions, representation, and residencies, as well as the realities of navigating the contemporary art world.

Artist Talk Presenter Biography:

Beatrice O’ Connell 

Beatrice O’Connell is a multidisciplinary artist from Dublin, Ireland, whose practice explores human and animal behaviour in the context of climate crisis.

Beatrice holds a BA in Painting from TU Dublin and an MFA from NCAD (2022). Her work spans drawing, painting, animation, video, sound, sculpture, installation, performance, and film. O’Connell exhibits regularly at Taylor Galleries, Dublin, where she presented her 2024 solo exhibition Overwintering on the Moon.

Her work has been included in major national exhibitions such as the RHA Annual Exhibition, the Royal Ulster Academy, and Rua Red’s Open Submission Exhibitions, as well as internationally at the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg and the Beep Painting Biennial in Swansea.

Beatrice has taken part in curatorial and collaborative projects such as Mutualism at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon (2024–25), Landmarks at the Pearse Museum (2022), and Sonic Displacements at Project Arts Centre (2022).

Her awards include the Arts Council Agility Award, a scholarship to study with Mark Dion at the Alternative Art School (2022), and a mentorship with Sabine Theunissen at William Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea (2021). O’Connell has participated in residencies at Leitrim Sculpture Centre (2023), Interface Inagh (2022), Fundación Valparaíso in Spain, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan, and Cill Rialaig in Kerry.

Forthcoming projects include screenings of Mutualism (co-created with Rayleen Clancy) at Homeland in Damer House Gallery, Tipperary and at Loop Festival Barcelona, as well as a solo exhibition at Taylor Galleries, Dublin, in early 2026.

This event is being supported by Creative Spark which has subsidised places for County Louth based artists.

Register Now!