NOW WAKES THE SEA
OPEN SUBMISSION EXHIBITION AND AWARD FOR IRISH AND UK ARTISTS ANNOUNCED BY KINSALE ARTS FESTIVAL FOR 2013
Initiative aims to support outstanding emerging talent in the visual arts.
 
Established by Kinsale Arts Festival in 2011 and previously known as Manifest, the new identity of the annual exhibition and award, Now Wakes the Sea, marks its expansion to include artists and panel members from the UK, and a commitment to promoting the work and profile of selected artists at international level.
 
Now Wakes the Sea invites submissions from visual artists in Ireland and the UK who have not yet had a major solo show. Artists will be selected by a respected panel comprising Tessa Fitzjohn (Guest Curator, UK), Ceri Hand (Ceri Hand Gallery, London), Daphne Wright (Artist Ire/UK.), Janice Hough (IMMA), and Trish Brennan (CIT Crawford College of Art and Design).  Selected artists will exhibit their work at Kinsale Arts Festival from the 6-14th July 2013.  The winner of the Now Wakes Award will be offered a solo show at the CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery in Co. Cork, with promotional support provided by both organisations. 
 
Now Wakes the Sea Curator Tessa Fitzjohn says, “I'm very excited to be curating the re- titled open submission exhibition Now Wakes the Sea for Kinsale Arts Festival 2013, and along with other panel members, to be selecting the artists and getting to know Kinsale with a view to opportunities for 2014. Now Wakes the Sea offers emerging artists in Ireland and the UK a unique opportunity to win a solo show in Cork. In the process their work will be seen by an international selection panel, and if selected, an international audience, providing the public and visiting arts professionals with a great opportunity to see and buy new art works”.
 
Kinsale Arts Festival is an annual celebration of international and regional arts and culture, taking place in the unique setting of a seaside town in West Cork. Now in its ninth year, the festival has become an integral part of Ireland’s cultural calendar, welcoming a selection of the most exciting established and emerging artists, writers and performers to take over the town for nine days each July. For nearly a decade, Kinsale Arts Festival has been commissioning and hosting work from outstanding artists of international repute, including Brian O’Doherty, Anya Gallaccio, Janet Mullarney and Alice Maher.
 
Under new Artistic Director Marie McPartlin, Kinsale Arts Festival will develop its identity as Ireland’s home for the arts and culture on sea. With ambitious new plans for the festival’s ten year anniversary in 2014, the launch of Now Wakes the Sea marks Kinsale’s renewed commitment to supporting emerging talent both at home and abroad and presenting it to an international audience. Now Wakes the Sea aspires to become an international platform for visual artists, providing opportunities for artist’s professional development and engaging curators and collectors with new work. 2013 promises an expanded exhibition space in a premier festival venue, with dedicated marketing and promotion in both Ireland and the UK.
 
Key Dates
Submissions will be accepted between 15 April and 3 June 2013
Artist’s notification                            17 June 2013
Delivery of work                                                 3 July 2013
*Selected work can be collected from Dublin, Cork, Limerick, London, Cardiff and Bristol full details to be advised to successful artists.
 
Exhibition preview                             6 July 2013
Exhibition                                             6 - 14 July
Collection of work                              14 - 15 July
 
2013 Selection Panel
Tessa Fitzjohn (Guest Curator). Spanning over 30 years, Tessa Fitzjohn’s career is truly multi-disciplinary, from her practice as an artist with exhibitions and residencies in the UK and abroad, to her well-established career as an art curator and producer. Previous roles include Arts Manager of Look Ahead Housing and Care in London and Visual Arts Officer for the Arts Council, England South East. In 2010 Tessa established her own public art consultancy. Current projects include Seeds of Change/Ballast Seed Garden with artist Maria Thereza Alves for Arnolfini, Bristol; Garden of Reason, Ham House, National Trust - eight commissions in the garden, programme of live art and interaction as Public Art Consultant for Linden Homes PLC, artist Simon Periton and for City & Country Group, Public Art Strategy for the Bristol General Hospital. www.tessafitzjohn.org
Ceri Hand brings over twenty years of experience in the art world, including previous roles as Director of Exhibitions, FACT (Liverpool, where she was a contributing curator to Liverpool Biennial in 2004 and 2006), Deputy Director of Grizedale Arts, Cumbria and Director of Make, London. The Ceri Hand Gallery in London focuses on conceptual and performance art, and producing and exhibiting major new works on and offsite. www.cerihand.co.uk
 
Daphne Wright (born Ireland 1963) has recently had solo exhibitions in England at Frith Street Gallery, London, Quad Gallery, Derby, University Gallery, Essex and Roche Court, Salisbury and in Ireland at Sligo Art Gallery, Crawford Gallery, Cork and Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin. International exhibitions include 48th Annale Pzivnica, Porec, Croatia, ICA, Boston, USA and PS1, New York, USA. Wrights works are held in the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germand, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and Towner Art Gallery, Sussex. Daphne Wright is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London. Daphne Wright’s art is the result of a relentless curiosity into the way in which a range of languages and materials can create an involvement with often unspoken human preoccupations. Casting, sound recording, film making and drawing result in rigorous series of works that explore a range of subjects from prayer, literature and song to aging, and death.
http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/bio/daphne_wright
 
Janice Hough spent a number of years as a practicing artist before she began coordinating the Artists’ Residency Programme at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2004. Since then she has worked with over 100 artists dealing with every stage of the residency process. In 2005 she co-curated the exhibition Precaution at IMMA with an accompanying publication. She is founding member of VISIT, a Dublin city-wide open artists’ studio event and a founding member of Artists Studio Network Ireland. Further information about IMMA’S Artists’ Residency Programme can be found at www.imma.ie   
 
Trish Brennan lives in Cork and is acting Head of Fine Art & Ceramic Design at CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork.  She studied Film, Video and Photographic Arts at Westminster University (London) and as a postgraduate studied Fine Art at National College of Art & Design (Dublin).  While she currently works in education and continues an arts practice, she has a broad and diverse experience of working in the arts including:  director/producer, arts management and development of arts policy. 
http://www.cit.ie/aboutcit/facultiesandcolleges/citcrawfordcollegeofartanddesi1/
 
Manifest award winner 2012 Bartosz Kolata’s first solo show will be open at the CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery during the festival.
 
For further information, guidelines and application form please visit http://kinsaleartsfestival.com/now-wakes-the-sea/about-now-wakes-the-sea/
 
For press related queries please email Ana Mahé at ana@kinsaleartsfestival.com or T. 021 4700010