Building on our dynamic new vision, the Bureau of Radical Accessibility (B.R.A.) is a site-specific intervention in The Model foyer area. Staffed by Model employees and artists-in-residence, the B.R.A. is set up in direct defiance to the closed-off office spaces in order to meet, hold discussions and conduct interviews with the public, colleagues and others.
We hope to harvest public opinion and information, map connections, debate ideas and propositions, hang out, draw, talk, work, surf the internet, plan, scheme and laugh.
The relationships, dialogue and information gathered will inform The Model’s work for the next three years. B.R.A. is a new initiative that aims to open up space for dialogue and debate about what we need to do to be creative MODEL citizens today.
BRA Office Hours: Tuesday – Saturday from 11am – 3pm
Each of the following talks are running as part of our B.R.A. initiative.
11 February Mark Clare
Mark Clare joins us tomorrow for a public artist’s talk and tour at 3pm as part of his current exhibit ‘I Believe In You’, currently on show at The Model. Clare graduated from St. Martin’s College of Art & Design (1992), London with a BA (Hons) Fine Art Sculpture before completing a MA in Fine Art at the University of Ulster (2004). He now lives and works in Dublin. He has had several solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally including most recently ‘MonoCulture’, Broadcast Gallery, Dublin, (2013); ‘Dreamhouse’,
LaGrange Art Museum Georgia USA. In 2008, he was awarded an Open Award EV+A 2008 by the International Critic and Curator Hou Hanru and in 2012 was commissioned to produce a work by the Arts Council of Ireland.
18 February – Bart Lodewijks
Lodewijks will discuss his practice, the ongoing project in Dooley Park area of Sligo and the upcoming exhibition at The Model in Winter 2015
25 February – Niamh O’Connor
After researching and holding office hours at the BRA, O’Connor will discuss her findings and her work. O’Connor seeks to explore art, mental health and community during her week in residence at the B.R.A. The central questions her research asks is what does mental wellbeing look like for an art museum and its stakeholders and where are the points of connection/differentiation between arts and health agendas. Her presentation will explore these questions through her arts practice and her role as coordinator of an arts and mental health programme.
04 March – Helen Sharp (IE/UK)
Continuing her work in Sligo, Helen Sharpe returns to The Model to hold office hours in the BRA. She will also present her work and new projects planned for 20125 and beyond. A BRA initiative.
11 March – Megan Johnston (USA/IE)
Johnston will discuss the interests and influences of her most-recent curated project Shared Visions: The Model Collects.
Dr Shelia Dickinson
The Model is please to invite noted critic, writer and academic Dr. Shelia Dickinson to Sligo. She will discuss the changing dynamic of art criticism due to the democratising effects of art blog-azines and websites. These bring in a multitude of voices and connect art scenes around the globe. In addition, she will help attendees undertake their own writing about art in the spirit of the ongoing Bureau of Radical Accessibility through approaching the art experience through writing and providing a forum on the Model website to share these art experiences.
Dr. Dickinson is an art critic and former Secretary for the Irish Section of the International Association of Art Critics. Based now in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she writes for the Walker Art Center blog, MN Artists and Temporary Art Review. But she began writing for Circa in Ireland while teaching at NUI Galway and her first assignment was a review of the expansion of the Model in 2001. She continued to write for Circa while working on her doctorate on contemporary Irish art in the Art History Department at UCD. She currently teaches in the Art History Department at the University of St. Thomas.
18 March – Michael Birchall (UK/DE)
Taking the Bureau of Radical Accessibility as a starting point, Birchall will discuss the shifting powers of the curator today. He Will look specfically at the curator as a producer in socially engaged art.
25 March – Kathy O’Leary (IE)
After spending time in the BRA and researching The Model, O’Leary will discuss her visual art practice as it involves creating and developing a particular goal towards inclusion and participation within and artistic and research context.
02 April – Carmen Papalia (CAN) presentation Accessibility
Throughout his time in residence Papalia will perform a role as The Model’s access coordinator: a position through which he will assess the history of disabling practices at the museum and propose a set of measures that will allow the museum to become an openly accessible, horizontal platform for cultural exchange.
08 April – Kristen Lantz (USA) presentation Innovative Pedagogy
During her time in residence, lantz will co- develop a model for community engagement with museum staff that will help open access to cultural learning through the arts for those marginalised by unjust and disabling power structures.
22 April – Ed Carroll (IE) & Rachel Mullen (IE) Workshop
Representing Blue drum, Carroll joins with rachel Mullen from the Equality rights alliance to exchange ideas about equality and human rights framework and how to integrate a framework into local arts and cultural processes.
29 April – Anne Labovitz (USA)
American-based painter Labovitz will hold B.R.A. office hours and will then discuss her painting practice—from both here studio-based approach and her socially engaged process.
06 May – Paul Seawright (IE/UK)
Seawright will discuss his practice and elaborate on issues found in his exhibition Making News: Things Left Unsaid currently on view.
13 May – Michael J. Strand (USA)
After spending nearly a week in the BRA, American Ceramicist of the Year 2014 will speak at The Model about his international socially engaged art practice, the space between object and people, the legacy of craft today, and building a network of activated creative citizens.
20 May Killian Glynn (IE)
Sligo IT student Killian Glynn will hold office hours at the B.R.A office to interface with the public about the upcoming referendum on the same-sex marriage in May 2015. He will present a performance piece in response to the ongoing public dialogue.
27 May – Daniela Palomariu (PO)
After a week of holding B.R.A office hours, Romanian artist Palimariu will discuss her practice, including her ongoing interest in public/private events and livable objects that talk about the ambiguity of human relations, the need for personal space, play and daily subversions.
