four artists win major new awards

Four renowned artists were this evening awarded the first-ever grants of £10,000 each by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland at a reception in Belfast City Hall.

RITA DUFFY, BRIAN IRVINE, SUSAN McWILLIAM and COLIN TEEVAN were selected out of more than 30 applications from artists to the Major Individual Awards Scheme, launched in April this year. The grants go towards the development of extended or ambitious work by artists of international reputation at mid-career.

The awards were open to established artists of all disciplines and in all types of working practice who are based and have been contributing regularly to artistic activities in Northern Ireland for at least one year. Also required was evidence of continuing professional practice and of national or international recognition in the arts. Also taken into account were the viability of the artist’s proposal and the potential of the award to help the artists develop within their own art.

The awards were presented at a reception attended by members of the An Chomhairle Ealaíon/The Arts Council, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and by representatives of more than 100 organisations which have benefited from joint north-south funding over the last 50 years including the Abbey Theatre and Aspects Festival of Irish Writing. Also attending were Michael McGimpsey MLA, Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure and Dr Aideen McGinley, Permanent Secretary at the Department.

The presentation formed part of celebrations marking the 50^th anniversary of the founding of An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the 25^th anniversary of formal cross-border co-operation in the arts. The Chairman of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Prof Brian Walker, presented his counterpart, Patrick Murphy, with a sculpture by the artist Cara Murphy as a token of the two Council’s continuing working relationship.

Rita Duffy, Painter

Born in Belfast, Rita Duffy studied at the Ulster Polytechnic, at the Art and Design Centre in Belfast and took her MA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster in 1986. She has shown her work in San Francisco, Kenshaw State University, Georgia, the McMullan Museum in Boston, as well as in

numerous venues in Ireland and the UK. Her work is represented in the collections of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Boyle Arts Collection, the Ulster Museum, Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, and the National Self-Portrait Collection in Limerick, among many others.

Her most recent work during the Belfast festival at Queen’s will be located in the high-rise flats at Divis, looking out over Castle Street. A beacon of light will be set against the Divis mountain. The image of the flats is a recurring motif in Duffy’s work. Each inhabitant of the flats has chosen an image which most represents her or his life to be traced onto a blind which will be affixed to the windows of the south facing façade. The giant illuminated tapestry will be ‘switched on’ for the final night of the festival, celebrating the lives of those living there and, by extension, all of us.

Her award is based on a major cross-artform project at Armagh Women’s Prison, involving a new body of work in collaboration with a theatre professional, transforming and opening a particular series of narratives.

Brian Irvine, musician

Born in Belfast, Brian Irvine’s work includes solo pieces, pieces for small and large ensembles, orchestral works and music for film and theatre. His compositions have been commissioned by a number of performers and organisations including the Ulster Orchestra, BBC, RTE, Scottish Ballet, Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, Dublin Jazz Festival, Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, and have been performed at a variety of venues in Europe and America.

His compositions reflect an interest in various and opposing musical genres from minimalism and jazz to thrash metal and 20^th century classical music. His award-winning 14-piece ensemble engage in performances characterised by their energy, virtuosity and humour. Irvine’s debut album Bersudsky’s Machines has received widespread critical acclaim.

His award is based on the writing, development and performance of a major new musical composition, combining musicians and people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities in both writing and performing. The large-scale piece is conceived as a suite of eight pieces and will last around one hour.

Susan MacWilliam, artist

Susan MacWilliam is one of the most impressive of the younger artists working in Northern Ireland. A recipient of the prestigious PS1 Residency in New York in 1999, she has exhibited her work in Amsterdam, Chicago, Las Vegas and London and her work was shown at the 1999 Glen Dimplex Artists Awards at IMMA in Dublin. This year she occupied the Residency at Caribbean Contemporary Arts in Trinidad.

Solo exhibitions include Gallery 1 at the Cornerhouse in Manchester (currently showing) and in the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, in February and March next year. The award is based on a series of projects that examine how 3D and moving images are constructed.

Colin Teevan, playwright

Colin Teevan was born in Dublin. His play Vinegar and Brown Paper was given two productions in the Peacock at the Abbey in Dublin. His version of Iphigenia in Aulis, IPH…, was directed by David Grant at the Lyric in Belfast and his new stage version of Hasek’s novel Svejk completed a hugely successful run at the Gate Theatre in London. He was the dramaturg on Peter Hall’s production of Tantalus, as well as contributing additional text.

His play The Walls was produced earlier this year at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe Theatre and his new version of The Bacchae will be directed by Peter Hall on the Olivier Stage of the National next year. He is currently in rehearsal with his new play Monkey at the Young Vic Theatre and is also completing a new play, In The Suburbs of Your Good Pleasure, for the National Theatre.

He is currently Head of Drama at Queen’s University, Belfast.