TULCA 2023: honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise | 3-19 November | Galway

Welcome to the 21st edition of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, entitled honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise. 

Contributors to honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise include: Áine O’Hara, Aisling-Ór Ní Aodha, Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Bog Cottage, Bridget O'Gorman, Edward Lawrenson & Pia Borg, Holly Márie Parnell, Jamila Prowse, Jenny Brady, Leila Hekmat, Nat Raha, P. Staff, Paul Roy, Philipp Gufler, Rouzbeh Shadpey, Sarah Browne and Sean Burns.

Over the last year, the TULCA team has worked with a wonderfully thoughtful and rigorous group of artists and writers that have made sensual, tender and compelling work. The artworks in this festival explore experiences of disability, home and the intimacy of access, and have been brought together in the context of the evolving ideas around health and medicine in the West of Ireland. 

Throughout the festival there are an array of talks, workshops, tours, screening and performances to consider how landscapes and communities are shaped by these legacies, and how they influence how we see ourselves and where we call home. We have published a companion publication with essays on drawings of J.J. Beegan, the Spiddal born disability activist Martin Naughton, unionising patients, the abolitionist disability politics of the Black Panther Party, the personal archives of those committed to St. Brendan’s, Grangegorman and poetry reflecting on abolition, disability justice and home.

Writers include: Alan Counihan, Carol R. Kallend, Joanna Marsden, Nat Raha, Roisin Agnew, Sami Schalk and Tone F Pone + Inky Lee. 

honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise is dedicated to Ballinasloe born artist, J.J. Beegan. Beegan drew on tissue paper using burnt matchsticks while living at Netherne Mental Hospital in Surrey, England. Beegan often named himself, his profession and where he’s from, alongside images of flowers and birds, writing: “J.J. BEEGAN SCULPTERER DUNLO HILL BALLINASLOE.” Acknowledging his recalling of home, Beegan’s work will be celebrated at an event in Ballinasloe Library. 

Accessibility is a core tenet of this year's festival. We are honoured to be working in collaboration with Arts & Disability Ireland to create access provision for the festival, including captioning of selected video works and training for our education team to deliver audio described tours during the festival. In addition to this support,  many films have audio described versions, with transcripts provided for soundpieces. There will be masked social events and our booklets feature access statements to support you on your visit. Take your time here, there are plenty of seats and places to rest. 

View the TULCA 2023 programme of talks, tours, screenings and performances here

Supported by Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway County Council and Arts & Disability Ireland.

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise
Curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
3 - 19 November 2023
Galway, Ireland

www.tulca.ie

In light of the serious humanitarian crisis in Gaza a percentage of gallery sales proceeds will be donated in solidarity to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

Video credits: Video excerpts from 'Echo's Bones' (2022) Sarah Browne and 'Weed Killer' (2017), 'Forgetting Is the Sun' (2023) Rouzbeh Shadpey. Courtesy of the artists.
Edit: Jonathan Sammon.

TULCA Volunteer Programme | 3-19 November 2023

TULCA Volunteer Programme | 3-19 November 2023

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is now accepting applications for its 2023 Volunteer Programme.

TULCA is a multi-venue, artist-centered festival of contemporary art that works with Irish curators to present innovative exhibitions that provoke and energise audiences into the world of the visual arts. This years TULCA programme is curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais and is titled; honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise. The festival will run from 3 - 19 November 2023 across multiple galleries in Galway city and county.

TULCA Volunteer Programme

Every year our volunteers form a core part of our team. Participating in the TULCA Volunteer Programme gives you first-hand working experience of the time,energy and ambition that goes into the production and running of a contemporary visual art festival. We seek to provide an enriching, educational, and uplifting time for all of our volunteers.

Tasks Include: 

• Invigilation of TULCA Festival art galleries

• Assisting with the delivery of programme events

• Supporting education tours and workshops

Benefits: Participating in TULCA Festival gives you hands-on experience of the time, energy, drive and ambition that goes into the production and running of a contemporary visual art festival. TULCA Festival values those that volunteer with us as most of the TULCA team started out as volunteers. We seek to provide an enriching, educational, and uplifting time for all of our volunteers.

Gallery Assistant Duties: Art Gallery invigilation, ensuring the safety and security of artworks on display, providing a warm and welcoming environment for our visitors, point of contact for gallery visitors, ensure audience are adhering to latest HSE safety guidelines.

Live Event Duties: Event venue invigilation, assist production team with delivery of event, providing a warm and welcoming environment for our visitors, point of contact for event visitors, ensure audience are adhering to latest HSE safety guidelines.

Educational Duties: Represent TULCA, meet and greet, support/assist with art gallery tours, usher groups between venues, support/assist workshop facilitators, supervision support, ensure groups are adhering to latest HSE safety guidelines.

COVID-19 Safety Measures: The safety of our volunteers and audiences are our top priority. We plan to keep a safe environment by strictly adhering to HSE safety guidance as they pertain to venues and indoor gatherings.

Interested in joining the TULCA Volunteer Team?

If you have a love of the arts and want to be part of an energising team then TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is the place for you! Volunteer shift hours are from 12pm-3pm or 3pm-6pm everyday during the duration of the Festival.

We ask volunteers to commit to at least 2 shifts over the festival run. If there is a particular area of interest you would like to work in, TULCA will do our best to accommodate!

Join our Volunteer Team!
volunteer@tulca.ie
www.tulca.ie/volunteer
 

Full festival programme and a commissioned publication will be announced in early October. 

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise
Curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
3 - 19 November 2023
Galway, Ireland

www.tulca.ie

Photo: Soft Day Media

Announcement: Contributors to TULCA 2023

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to announce the contributors to its 2023 exhibition programme, titled honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais.

Festival dates: 3 - 19 November 2023, Galway city and county.

Contributors to honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise include: Áine O’Hara, Aisling-Ór Ní Aodha, Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Bog Cottage, Bridget O'Gorman, Edward Lawrenson & Pia Borg, Holly Márie Parnell, Jamila Prowse, Jenny Brady, Leila Hekmat, Nat Raha, P. Staff, Paul Roy, Philipp Gufler, Rouzbeh Shadpey, Sarah Browne and Sean Burns.

Taking its title from the description of an Irish folk cure, honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise responds to the evolving experiences of disability and medicine in the West of Ireland. Reflecting on the legacy of institutions such as St Brigid’s Mental Health Hospital and how ideas of health and treatment can shape landscapes and communities. The festival is dedicated to Ballinasloe born artist J.J. Beegan, who made drawings recalling home while living at Netherne Mental Health Hospital in Surrey, England.

You will find sounds, drawings, films, quilts, sculptures, performances, social spaces and paintings throughout Galway city and county. There are prints that express the experience of disability with ironic wit and soundscapes that dream of the sounds we wish we could hear from our sick beds.

There are films dedicated to loved ones through memories of illness and music, and the longing and access barriers of returning home as a disabled person. There are quilts weaving archives of disabled artists and others that celebrate queer artists and scholars whose lives were pathologised or touched by medicine.

Paintings visit sites of medical incarceration and we spend time with a group of young people who reimagine these sites through a neurodiverse lens. There are stories of how chemotherapy changes how we see ourselves, and others that transport us to a surrealist hospital for women that delves into the comedy and self-discovery of malady.  

We are brought to tower blocks in Birmingham as havens of queer life and witness the inhabitants' history with HIV and AIDS. We will also share in the intimacy of a memory test for dementia through the retelling of Iranian resistance films. Other spaces are transformed into Faery Forts that create spaces of softness and play, re-enchanting a familiar landscape and sculptures built upon the support and collaboration necessary to create. 

Iarlaith Ní Fheorais: “It has been a joy to spend more time at home in Galway curating this year's TULCA Festival, reflecting with artists on the many ways the experience of disability and medicine can shape places and communities, here in the west and elsewhere. It’s been such a nourishing process, and I’m over the moon to share the compelling and tender work of the artists in this year's programme.”

TULCA 2023: honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise will run from 3-19 November 2023 across multiple venues in Galway city and county.

Full festival programme and a commissioned publication will be announced in early October. 

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise
Curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
3 - 19 November 2023
Galway, Ireland

www.tulca.ie

Supported by Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway County Council and Arts and Disability Ireland.

Tsundoku Art Book Fair

Tsundoku Art Book Fair, courtesy of PhotoIreland

Tsundoku Art Book Fair | 13-16 July 2023 | Dublin Castle

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is delighted to present a collection of recent publications at the Tsundoku Art Book Fair which runs from the 13-16 July at The Printworks, Dublin Castle during the PhotoIreland Festival.

TULCA publications presented at Tsundoku Art Book Fair 2023 include:

XVIII - Stories of TULCA | Edited by Michaële Cutaya
The Law is a White Dog | Edited by Sarah Browne
there’s nothing here but flesh and bone, there’s nothing more | Edited by Eoin Dara
The World Was All Before Them | Edited by Stephen Connolly
Tactical Magic | Edited by Kerry Guinan

Tsundoku will feature a broad range of active publishers, artists and collectives, small presses, and institutions. The Fair will also present a full calendar of events, such as book launches, discussions, performances, workshops, exhibitions and special projects that highlight interdisciplinary artists’ publishing practices.

Visit here: Tsundoku Art Book Fair

Artist Support Worker

Image: Bridget O’Gorman, courtesy of the artist

Artist Support Worker 

Are you experienced in making sculpture or craft? Do you have a passion for working collaboratively on ambitious projects?

Artist Bridget O’Gorman is looking to hire a support worker to assist her in producing an ambitious new sculptural commission for TULCA 2023: honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a leading contemporary artist on an exciting new sculpture commission, exploring ideas around support, collaboration and interdependence.  

Job Title: Artist Support Worker
Location: Cahir, Tipperary

Pay and Remuneration:

• €150 per day. Transport and accommodation can be provided if required.

• You will be insured whilst on site.

Terms of Contract: Freelance

Hours: 

• Five full days in August and five full days in September 2023.

• The working day is 10am - 6pm. 

• Flexibility in hours may be required and will be negotiated in advance.

Who you’ll be working with:

• Artist; Bridget O’Gorman. 

• Producer; Iarlaith Ní Fheorais. 

The Role and Responsibilities: 

• Work with Bridget O’Gorman as an artists support worker to assist in the production of an ambitious sculptural commission for TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2023. 

• Assist in the production and finishing of sculptures.

• Support with the wrapping, moving and shipping of sculpture.

Experience Required:

• Experience of working with a range of sculptural materials, fabrication and finishing techniques including mould-making in a range of materials including clay, silicone and pigment.

• The ability to lift sculptures, use a ladder and perform manual tasks.

• Organised and can maintain good health and safety/housekeeping standards. 

• Works to their own initiative. 

Desirable: 

• Experience of working with disabled artists or experience of support work.

• Graduate of Sculpture or Craft third-level degree or equivalent experience.

• Live in Tipperary or the Midwest.

How to Apply:

• CV (2 pages max)

• A brief cover letter detailing why you are interested in the role and detailing your relevant experience (1 page max)

Send to curator2023@tulca.ie 

Deadline: Monday, July 3rd 2023

Interviews: An informal interview will be conducted online on the week commencing 10th July. 

Accessibility:

• If you have access needs relevant to the role, please include details in a separate page alongside your cover letter.

• Please email Iarlaith at curator2023@tulca.ie if you have any questions or require support in making your application.

• You can submit your application in text or via audio message, no greater than 8 minutes long.

Notes to applicants:

Unfortunately we are unable to provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants. 

This role is supported by the Arts and Disability Ireland Connect New Work Award 2023, field:arts and TULCA Festival of Visual Arts. TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is supported by the Arts Council, Galway City Council and Galway County Council.

---