Crawford Art Gallery is committed to exploring our shared histories and to exploratory practice. Up to six project awards are now available as part of the major research project, Building as Witness (6 December 2021 – 17 April 2024). Creative practitioners are invited to apply for one of these €12,000 project awards to develop creative responses that engage with Crawford Art Gallery’s buildings and environs from one hundred years ago.
Creative responses and interpretations can be collaborative, digital, ephemeral, performative, text, events, film, sound or installation based. We are looking for creative ideas that can be produced within the project award budget of €12,000 and can be shared in real or digital life with the public.
Building as Witness focuses on Crawford Art Gallery (previously Cork Municipal School of Art) and its immediate surroundings which was witness to fascinating histories of local, national, and international importance surrounding the Irish Civil War period.
Commencing 6 December 2021 – the centenary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty – Building as Witness spans the duration of the Irish Civil War and will culminate on 17 April 2024, one hundred years after the Gibson Bequest Committee agreed upon the purchase of Seán Keating’s iconic painting Men of the South for Crawford Art Gallery’s collection.
Building as Witness aims to reveal new insights into the everyday comings and goings in this building and its environs. It draws on a range of archives, including photographic, newspapers, committee minutes, Teaching and Student registers, and other documentation to examine the inhabitants and streetscape of those that lived and worked in the proximity of this iconic Cork building.
Click for application form and briefing document.
Creative practitioners must demonstrate the ability to connect and disseminate ideas, histories and communities with the audiences of Crawford Art Gallery. An accompanying overview document has been provided, by Building as Witness researcher Dr Tom Spalding, as an information starting point.
For queries please email: buildingaswitness@crawfordartgallery.ie
