Urban Alchemy The Transforming Power of Art and Architecture Programme Highlights * Case studies on quality architecture for cultural infrastructure, including O'Donnell + Tuomey's designs for the Lyric Theatre and ArtsTeam's refurbishment of the Grand Opera House; Will Chamberlain (Belfast Community Circus School / Festival of Fools) and James Hennessey (Paul Hogarth Company / Urban Design Group), exploring the role of street theatre performance in revitalising city centre areas (with a focus on Custom House Square); and Heather Floyd and Conor Shields discuss the 'Let's Get it Right' campaign for Cathedral Quarter - illustrating the importance of engaging with, and meeting local communities' needs in regeneration initiatives. * Maggie Bolt, Director of the UK PROJECT initiative, exploring the value of public art with Dr Eleanor Wheeler, Artist in Residence, Belfast City Council , who has been working to achieve greater and more meaningful engagement with local communities in neighbourhood regeneration initiatives. * Active debate during Q&A and networking sessions. * City
Biographies Barry Pritchard MSc DArch IHBC RIBABarry is jointly responsible for leading Arts Team – probably the largest practice in the UK specialising in the design of architecture for the arts world-wide. For over 25 years Barry has been involved in designing theatres, concert halls, galleries and arts centres. He has had major input into a range of the practice’s most prestigious projects, from the recently completed London Coliseum restoration to the soon to be finished Northern Stage, Belfast Grand Opera House, and Urdang Dance Academy.
Will spent ten years working as a street artist across the
Educated at the Cork School of Art and later at the College of Technology, Bolton Street, Dublin 1. Qualified in 1969. Worked initially in the Private Sector where he became a principal in the firm of Delany MacVeigh and Pike. He joined the Public Service in 1984 when he was appointed Senior Architect for Limerick. He was part of the team which directed the redevelopment of that city including substantial urban design projects. Jim Barrett became Dublin City Architect in 1994, has been a director of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd. and the National Building Agency Ltd.
Heather Floyd is director of the Community Arts Forum, Belfast (the umbrella and networking organisation for community arts in Northern Ireland), having started working with the organisation in 1999 as training officer. Prior to this, Heather worked for eight years in Shankill Women’s Centre managing the centre’s education and cultural programmes. Heather has been a key member of the Let’s Get It Right campaign since its inception, a group established to campaign for developments in Cathedral Quarter.
Conor is a multi-instrumentalist and has been a performing musician for over twenty years. He has co-founded theatre companies, worked in broadcast media and facilitated workshops through a range of disciplines in theatres, community settings and prisons. Conor sits on various boards in the arts and educational sectors in N Ireland including the Workers’ Educational Association and the Community Arts Forum. He is passionate about the role the arts play in society and is the Programme Director of New Belfast Community Arts Initiative, a city-wide multi-discipline arts organisation with offices in the Cathedral Quarter.
Glenn Patterson is the author of six novels: That Which Was (2004), Number 5 (2003), The International (1999), Black Night At Big Thunder Mountain (1995), Fat Lad (1992), Burning Your Own (1988).
Dr Eleanor WheelerEleanor Wheeler studied Ceramics at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen and went on to complete an MA in 3D Design specialising in ceramics in Cardiff. She then completed a practice based PhD researching 'the Role of Architectural Ceramics in Contemporary Site Specific Art' at the University of Northumbria in 1996. During this time, Eleanor was engaged by architects, housing associations and local authorities in designing and making ceramic and brick sculpture for new buildings and public spaces in Scotland and the North of England. Since returning to Northern Ireland, Eleanor has continued to design and make large scale site specific artwork for public buildings and sites. Recent work has included commissions for the Ulster and Mater Hospitals, the Laganside Corporation, Coleraine Borough Council and the Ulster Museum. Eleanor is currently employed as Artist in Residence with Belfast City Council, implementing arts projects within the 'Renewing the Routes' Urban Regeneration Programme.
John Tuomey is a partner in O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects. He is a part-time studio lecturer in architecture at UCD and is the author of Architecture, Craft and Culture published by Gandon Editions in 2004. A new monograph O’Donnell + Tuomey Selected Works will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in September 2006.
Maggie Bolt is the Director of Public Art South West, a strategic development agency funded by the Arts Council, which works with the public and private sector in the South West to create frameworks in which artists and craftspeople can be involved in the creation of new spaces and the regeneration of old ones. PASW champions the idea of a multi-disciplinary approach to design in the environment and a re-appraisal of the role of the artist from maker of objects to an integral part of a conceptualising design team. PASW operates a public art resource www.publicartonline.org.uk, a unique website and an international intellectual resource which provides a research based forum for debate. A major initiative for PASW at present is the delivery and management of PROJECT – engaging artists in the built environment, which will run until March 2006. She has been invited to make numerous presentations in and outwith the UK, the most recent being from the Dutch Government regarding an expert European meeting in The Hague. She was previously a senior visual arts officer at the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) where she was responsible for developing the SAC’s public art policy and the programme of artists’ grants and national and international residencies. Other roles also include lecturing at Glasgow School of Art on ‘Life After Art School’, artists’ professional development, running the Scottish Arts Council’s Touring Exhibition Service and managing a leading private art Gallery at the time, the Nigel Greenwood Gallery and a stint working in a top London Advertising Agency. In 2002 she completed an M.A. in Urban Design, with the focus of her dissertation being on Government Guidance in relation to multi-disciplinary working and the inclusion of artists. Maggie is the Vice Chair of ixia – excellence in public art, and until recently a board member of AXIS. She is member of the Urban Design Group, a Fellow of the RSA and a panel member of the South West Design Review Panel.
Angus FarquharAngus Farquhar is Creative Director of NVA and is one of the UK’s most experienced directors and producers. Over the last decade the company has successfully produced the largest and most complex live events ever staged in rural settings in the UK. NVAis a Scottish environmental arts charity that creates temporary and permanent public art works and events. The organisation specialise in projects using art as a medium for large-scale community regeneration, events and festivals. Their mission is to take people on journeys; to create environments in which people feel inspired and open up to new ways of seeing. For more information visit www.nva.org.uk or email: contact@nva.org.uk
Sir Michael Hopkins is one of the leading international practitioners of high-tech architecture. Through his continuous re-evaluation of design solutions and his contribution to the debate about the delicate relationship between modernity and tradition he has developed into one of the most sensitive exponents in Northern Europe of architectural practice in both historic centres and the landscape. After 1976, the year his studio was founded, his work was characterized by a sophisticated use of glass and steel in residential and industrial buildings that followed the principles of the radical modernists and as well as being in the forefront of technology. In the mid Eighties Hopkins changed emphasis onto what he called the ‘updating of the traditional materials’. This influenced the second generation of his projects such as the Mound Stand, Lord's Cricket Ground in London, the Queen's Building, Emmanuel College in Cambridge, the Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham and above all Portcullis House, the building for the British Parliament in London. For Hopkins, progress is no longer a break with the past but rather an act of continuity where he deftly and intelligently integrates traditional elements such as stone and wood, with advanced and environmentally responsible technology.
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