Artists to explore literature, art, and ecology at Thoor Ballylee
Residencies will highlight the various talents of the Yeats family.
Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society supported by Galway Culture Company have announced the artists selected for their 2024 residency programme. Two residencies of two-weeks each, will take place at the Studio at Thoor Ballylee in July and September.
July’s residency will welcome Kara Griffin, a children’s book author from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Her writing celebrates the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Her debut picture book, The Sea That Sings To Me, and her second picture book, Flitt’s Call, were both published with Acorn Press in 2023. She is currently working on several nature-themed stories for young readers.
Kara intends to spend the residency immersed in Yeats’s great literature, “spending precious time in a place that celebrates the power of words to shape and heal the world, and bring the spiritual and mystical alive.”
Susan Mannion will take up the September residency. Susan is a printmaker and copper enamellist based in Boyle, County Roscommon. Influenced by landscape and patterns in nature, Susan has exhibited nationally and internationally with her work being held in several public and private collections worldwide.
Before becoming a full-time artist, Susan trained as an archaeologist, specialising in medieval building architecture, a training which continues to inform her practice today. In her printmaking, Susan connects with the legacy and work of Elizabeth and Susan Yeats through the Dun Emer Guild and Cuala Press.
Residencies will include public events, activities and creative workshops. Details to be announced via the Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society website and social media.
Chair of the Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society Anna O’Donnell said: “With the focus on writing, nature, visual arts and printing, these two residencies highlight the various talents of the Yeats’s family. We are delighted to bring contemporary artists and writers to this very special place to be creatively inspired, as Yeats once was.”
The Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society Artist in Residence Programme is supported by Galway Culture Company.
