The excitement at Greywood Arts is growing as we prepare for our Opening Celebration on July 1st. It promises to be a very beautiful night you won’t want to miss!

We are delighted to welcome Anna Mitchell, who will please your ears with her extraordinary voice. She will play the Opening with the support of her band and it is going to be powerful!

Anna recently took the Opera House in Cork by storm as a special guest with Jack O’Rourke. The singer–songwriter-keyboardist moves confidently between soulful Americana, brooding late night ballads, and country-tinged folk. Her music pays homage to the past yet carves out a unique and contemporary space for her gorgeous voice – called “hauntingly beautiful” by RTE.

With a reputation as a passionate live performer able to capture an audience, Anna has performed and toured with many celebrated singers and songwriters including Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, Mick Flannery, John Smith, Duke Special, Lisa Hannigan and many more. She impressed the celebrated American poet and songwriter Simone Felice so much that he invited her to work with him on his new album.

After the release of her debut album ‘Down to the Bone’ in 2015, she has returned to the studio to record the follow up. Look out 2017, we will soon see some new music from the Cork-based songstress.

It’s Friday night and we say start your weekend off right with some great music by Anna Mitchell!

Click here to see “Dog Track” live with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra. Look carefully and you will see our other musical guest for the opening, Ilse de Ziah, playing some bad ass cello!

Our Opening Celebration is fast approaching – mark Saturday 1 July on your calendars! See the full line up and let us know if you’ll be coming on our Facebook event.

What better way to celebrate our purpose than by awarding a residency to an artist, who will then share their work with all of you on the evening?

We were very impressed by the proposals we received, but with only one space available it was quite a competitive process. The quality of work submitted was very high, and we truly appreciate the time each artist put into their proposal.

We are delighted to announce the artist-in-residence leading up to the opening will be Naomi Litvack!

Naomi – a painter who lives and works in Belfast – won us over with her use of colour and how her proposed project would connect to Killeagh’s local landscape. We are looking forward welcoming her.

In her own words:

My artistic practice is concerned with both direct and second hand experiences of landscape. Personal photographs and memories meld with found imagery, found objects, impressions gleaned and facts learned from books, the internet and from aural history. I am interested in the passing of stories. I deal with ideas of home and away and use the exotic to make a comment on the familiar. Forms reappear in paintings which reflect my experiences of landscapes both exotic and tropical and of my native Irish homeland.

            My current subject matter explores exotic locations, represented in imagery depicting luscious plant life and hyper-sensual landscapes. My work also has an air of the unreal about it, as I seek to capture dreamlike, strange and fantastical atmospheres within my painting. In my practice I set out to explore the human relationship to landscape in both reality and in cultural representations.

We particularly appreciated Naomi’s proposal for the one-week residency. She will make a full study of the setting of Killeagh by using photography, sketching and writing and will process these impressions for the exhibition of resultant paintings at the opening celebration. She will focus on the natural world and local plant life, Killeagh and its inhabitants and will try to capture the atmosphere of Greywood Arts and the one of the village as well. Besides exhibiting her artwork during the opening, Naomi will engage with visitors to Greywood Arts by giving a talk on the opening night, introducing the paintings and summarising her experiences of the residency and impressions of Killeagh.

You can follow Naomi on facebook or see more of her work online here. 

Help us give her a warm welcome by posting in the comments below!

OPEN CALL:
Residency: Sunday 25^th June – Sunday 2^nd July
Deadline: Friday 26^th May 4pm
Artists will be notified by 31^st May

Greywood Arts invites proposals from visual artists (or small teams of collaborators) for a one-week residency to take place the last week in June, leading up to our Opening Celebration 1^st July, 2017.

Artists will receive free accommodation and workspace. We are interested in process, thus a requirement of this residency is that the selected artist (or group of artists) share some aspect of their process via demonstration, exhibition, discussion, etc. at our opening celebration Saturday 1^st July. Projects that respond to or interact with the site are especially encouraged.

To apply, send the following to: create (at) greywoodarts.org

Name(s), contact information
CV (one page max)
Artist Statement
Up to 5 Work samples
Proposal (one page max):

• Tell us about your project
• Tell us about your process
• How would you engage with the community at our opening celebration?
• What kind of support does your project require?

Selected artist(s) receive:

• Accommodation (self-catering)
• Workspace: the visual arts studio is 5.2m square (17×17 ft) with four south-east facing windows and high ceilings. There are work tables, a drafting table, and a sink. Note the studio is located on the second floor.
• Transportation from Cork City to Killeagh if required.
• Inclusion in all marketing for the Opening Celebration and a feature on our website Greywoodarts.org

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions – we look forward to hearing from you!

We are delighted to have Sam on board with us through the opening celebration on 1 July. Already here just over a week, she has proved herself to be a fabulous intern! She will be helping us with social media, funding research, and an exhibition about the history of our house for the opening.

Hello,

My name is Samantha. I’m from Belgium and am 24 years old. I am currently working with Jessica at Greywood Arts to improve my English skills and get more experience in order to find a job in the cultural sector.

I took a Master’s degree in Conservation and Preservation of artworks in ESA Saint-Luc of Liege and I took a 2-year-Master’s degree in Museology in the University of Liege. Obviously, I am into arts and culture – I have been painting and drawing since I am 11 years old.

Nevertheless, that is not my only interest. I have always been into protection of the environment and animals, therefore after my studies I went to the South of France to take part in an eco-volunteering for the protection of turtles.

I love reading as well and, thanks to my studies and my numerous internships, I have learnt the necessity of diversity. Therefore, I have discovered a range of interesting areas, often linking with art, environment or animals. Indeed, I have taken a fancy to history, politics, economics and societal issues and I am reading as much as possible about them.

Because of all of that, I love travelling (or maybe is it the opposite?) and every year I try to travel as much as possible.

Doing an internship in Ireland has offered a great opportunity for me and I am glad (and very lucky) to be part of the Greywood adventure.

Hopefully my life will continue being full of art, culture, travel projects, discoveries and amazing meetings as well.

It’s likely that our lovely little village has never seen the likes of musical experimentation that took place with Sophie Cooper & Delphine Dora and guests last Friday, 21st of April. And the response was overwhelmingly positive. The evening was described as surreal and magical. The improvisational format may be familiar for those in the contemporary music scene, but even attendees who felt the boundaries of their comfort zone pushed said they were glad they came. At the end of the night we felt excited about the kind of place – and community – that we are creating around Greywood Arts.

The show began upstairs, with a collaborative improvisation between Sohpie, Delphine, Cork based musicians Roslyn Steer and Declan Synnott, plus Wille Stewart & Natalia Beylis of Hunters Moon Festival fame. Musicians were on the periphery, while the audience was invited to sit in the centre. This flowed seamlessly into a set by Deccie and then another by Roslyn.

During the break, we shifted downstairs to the Library. Food and drink were served in the dining room, and at some point the dogs were let in. All five of them…(ours + guests.) Sophie & Delphine gathered words from the audience for Improv Charades, and created new instant hits like Girl, Horror and Biscuit, Flower. It was nice to have a bit of humour in the mix, though the on-the-spot compositions ranged from melancholy to cacophonous (in a good way!) Really, you’ll want to keep an ear out for when the album they recorded at Greywood Arts gets released.

Meanwhile, you can listen to a track Sophie & Delphine recorded at Greywood with guests Roslyn Steer, Elaine Howley & Helios Leon: Between the Reality

We are so grateful for the support we received and look forward to more nights like this in the future. Mark 1st of July on your calendars for our grand opening celebration.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our next artists-in-residence, West Yorkshire based musician, Sophie Cooper and French musician, Delphine Dora. Collaborating across two different countries presents a unique set of challenges, so spending a week here with us should be very productive for them!

Come out on Friday, 21^st April at 7:30pm to hear what Sophie & Delphine have been working on. They will be joined by Cork-based musician, Roslyn Steer. There is a 5 euro suggested donation to support the musicians.

Sophie and Delphine have embarked on an ongoing improvisational project together exploring sonic possibilities between their primary instruments of trombone, piano, voice and electronics. Cooper and Dora’s improvisational approach to making music has come from a shared interest in exploration of the unknown. The music produced is without restraints and sits somewhere between contemporary classical and experimental drone music.

As well as instrument playing, the duo have a strong interest in the human voice and possibilities of non-verbal communication, negotiating space between them and thinking about musical call and response. They see improvisation as a method of rejecting standard musical practices and the inclusion of electronic processes in their work creates a fresh way to present traditional brass instruments and accompaniment standards.

Hear them on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/wasistdas/delphine-dora-sophie-cooper-les-differences-sunissent

The collaboration between two women is also a crucial element of the duo’s ethos. In each other they find inspiration, spur each other on to be creative and hope to motivate other women to work with sound. With the forthcoming Brexit on the horizon they also see a collaboration between the UK and France as an important statement of solidarity and rejection of this event.

In the past two years, Cooper and Dora have undertaken two UK tours including invitations to perform at Oxfordshire’s Supernormal Festival, twice at London’s Café Oto, MK Gallery in Milton Keynes and Manchester’s Islington Mill. Their first album, which was recorded at Todmorden Unitarian Church, a historic late 19^th century chapel, was critically acclaimed and featured in both Pitchfork and The Quietus’ best of 2015 end of year lists.

France’s Delphine Dora and England’s Sophie Cooper have both made impressively uncategorizable music over the past decade, and while they’ve been mutual supporters (Dora released Cooper’s excellent Our Aquarius on her Wild Silence label last year), this is the first time they’ve played together. Improvising in an echo-laden church in West Yorkshire, the pair found a sound distinct from their respective individual work. Their voices fill the space in a haunting-yet-reverent way; some of the tracks are like wordless hymns sung by ghosts. —Marc Masters, PITCHFORK Best Experimental Albums of 2015

 

https://sophiecoopermusic.com/

https://delphinedora.wordpress.com/

 

By Clare Byrne
Artist in residence February 2017

Re-blogged, with permission, from www.clarebyrnemusic.com
Posted February 26th, 2017

What an incredible day we had on 18^th February. We’ve estimated that approximately 150 people crossed our threshold on Saturday!

We had an extra special guest, Peg Ahern, from whom we purchased the house. It was the first time we met her and it was very moving to watch her take in all the changes. She was delighted to see the house being cared for again.

There were a number of people who called in that have known the house for a long time, as well as people whose curiosity had built up over many years and could finally take a peek. We had a strong arts community contingent from East Cork and as far afield as Cork City. My mother-in-law came down from Wicklow to man the tea table, and the ladies from my yoga class descended on us, arms full of home baked cakes!

Our dear friend Stephanie Guilmette, who is staying with us for three months to help work on the house, created an exhibit of relics from the previous occupants up in the future movement studio.

We tried to give our guests a sense of the house’s history, as well as an idea of where we are going with it. We tried to answer questions like “what is an artist’s residency?” because it’s not a common term for those outside of the arts. It was fantastic to listen to people’s ideas for ways the space could be used, and we were overjoyed by offers of donations of things on our wish list. We now have a list of volunteers we can call on to help us out.

Clare Byrne’s work-in-progress showings had a great turnout. Clare played guitar, harmonica and keyboard while singing her own soulful folk-bluesy
repertoire. She incorporated contemporary dance that emerged from the rhythms she played on her instruments. Her movement ranged from robust to viscous to contemplative. And there was even a cameo performance by an toddler running through the space!

At the end of the day we felt full. Grateful. We were riding high on the positive energy that filled the house. Our guests were so warm and welcoming.

 

 

 

Some serious work went into restoring these planks covered in decades of paint.

 

The pine floorboards were reclaimed from a convent in Dublin. The floor would be fairly typical of a house like ours (maybe wider and without tongue & grooves in 1767).

It took three rounds of paint stripper to get them ready for sanding!

We rented an orbital floor sander and went over (and over, and over) with three grades of sandpaper.

We filled the nail holes with wood glue mixed with sawdust, but maybe it was the wrong glue as it left residue that wouldn’t sand up and we had to tackle it spot by spot.

Our good friend Stephanie had the patience to hand sand all of the edges where the floor met the skirting, and under the radiators.

Dust, everywhere.

The freshly sanded pine was lighter than we wanted, so we stained it to get a more aged look. Then we applied hard wax oil to finish it. Oiling floors would be more in line with the time period of the house, plus it will be easier to spot treat damaged areas in the future. Applying the hard wax oil was probably the easiest part and had the biggest impact.

After working on it almost a month, the floor is curing now.  I’m dying to get some furniture in there and have a sitting room for the first time since we moved in a year and a half ago!

 

Calling all visual artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, actors, directors, playwrights, poets, inventors, investigators, researchers, thinkers, doers, collaborators, and interdisciplinary art makers. 

We are now accepting applications for residencies from June 2017 through May 2018!

Are you interested in process? Digging deep? Honing your craft? Reimagining, reinventing, subverting, politicising, abstracting, nurturing? Do you value play, experimentation, and risk taking?

Greywood Arts is a site for investigating the how and the why without an emphasis on product. 

Work at any stage of development is welcome, so long as the project is compelling. We welcome individuals as well as groups of collaborators.   

We want Greywood to be a welcoming space – unpretentious, comfortable, and practical so you can focus on the work.

Residency details can be found on the Programs page.

Applications can be downloaded as PDF or WORD documents.

We are ALWAYS happy to have a conversation. Simply drop us an email: greywoodarts [at] gmail.com or give us a ring: Jessica +353 83 845 1750.