An Tain Arts Centre Dundalk welcome artists in receipt of Creative Residencies Awards for 2023

An Táin Arts Centre will be supporting another group of artists with their Creative Residency Award. This year the recipients are writer Una McKevitt, musician and songwriter Mark Corcoran, writer Radhika Iyer, musician Emer Kenny and the Emerging Visual Artist in Residence is Riley Waite. 

Una McKevitt, Writer in Residence from April to June 2023, has worked as a director with Irish comedy heavy weights such as Maeve Higgins, PJ Gallagher & Joanne McNally. Currently she is directing the 2023 Ireland and UK podcast tour My Therapist Ghosted Me with Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally. In 2022 Una was the Co. Louth participant of Platform 31, a nationwide artist scheme by the 31 Local Authority Arts Offices, in collaboration with The Arts Council of Ireland. 

Mark Corcoran, Songwriter in Residence from April to July 2023, has contributed to the  cultural life of Dundalk through establishing the people’s collective called Culture Club,  which begat Sea Legs Open Mic, historical talks and mini festivals, book clubs, social  gatherings, and pop-cultural walking tours of Dundalk for An Táin Arts Centre amongst other  things. For this residency he is writing a new music project and collaboration with musicians  around the world that will culminate in an album release in 2024, working title Undecided  and Unleaving.

Radhika Iyer, Writer in Residence from July to September 2023, writes short stories and creative non-fiction exploring the female struggle in different cultures. Her pieces have been featured on RTÉ Radio 1 and one was nominated for the IMRO Ireland Best Short feature award in 2020. Radhika received the The Arts Council of Ireland on Agility Award in September 2022. 

Riley Waite, Emerging Visual Artist in Residence from July to September 2023, was raised in Dundalk, and currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon, USA. He graduated in 2019 from Fine Art Drawing and Painting at the California State University, Long Beach. Riley focuses on narrative based figure painting and formal investigations centred around life in Ireland and California. Riley will be in residence in the space adjacent to the Basement Gallery during his residency and will exhibit a work in progress exhibition for the month of September. 

An Táin Arts Centre’s residency programme supports creative practitioners from every art form and artistic discipline by providing space, time and financial resources for them to develop their practice.

It is a professional development opportunity that serves to support the artist, which is a key part of An Táin Arts Centre’s mission. 

Paul Hayes Director of An Táin Arts Centre says:

“This year’s group of artists in residence feature emerging, mid-career and fully established artists. We are really excited to have them working with us and to be able to support artists in this way by giving them the space and time that they require to develop their practice.” 

Follow all the residencies progress on social media using the hashtag #antainartists