Spring 2010 - Working Artist Studios - Art Galleries, Exhibitions, Studios, Events and Field Trips
Art and Cultural of West Cork - Ireland
10years_2

We thank you for your support over the years and hope you can join us for our celebrations this year.

Open to the Public

Working Artist Studios Is an artist-managed venue based in the town of Skibbereen, West Cork, Ireland.


Video by Barry McCullough - a member of Working Artist Studios

Our intention is to provide an informal environment where engagement between artists, art-lovers and the wider community can occur.


We invite you to visit, browse the galleries and exhibition space and meet the artists at work. We also welcome showing groups around i.e. school art classes, tours or organisations. Just give us a few days prior notice.

Most of the work on display in the Galleries and Studios is for sale.

EVENTS - Current 2010 Calendar

new_srFriday, 16th April at 7.00pm - As part of our ongoing Tenth Anniversary Celebrations and continuing our series of readings by leading poets, Working Artist Studios are proud to present an Evening with Leanne O’Sullivan at Outer Space, Working Artist Studios, 71, North St.,Skibbereen, Co. Cork

Leanne O'Sullivan
Leanne O'Sullivan comes from the Beara Peninsula in West Cork. Although she is still in her twenties, she has already won most of Ireland's main poetry competitions and had poems published in many of the magazines - when no one knew her age. She has won first prize in the Seacat poetry competition, the RTE Rattlebag Poetry Slam and the Davoren Hanna Award for Young Emerging Irish Poet. Her first collection Waiting for my Clothes, published by Bloodaxe 2004, traces a deeply personal journey, from the traumas of eating disorder and low self-esteem to the saving powers of love and positive awareness. She has been writing poetry since she was 12, and began these poems not thinking they would ever form part of a book, but 'writing down the reasons I should live for' and then 'becoming addicted to looking at things to find the beauty in them'.

Her work has been included in various anthologies, including:
Best Irish Poetry 2010 (Southword Publishing),
Selina Guinness's The New Irish Poets (Bloodaxe Books, 2004) and
Billy Collins's Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry (Random House, 2003). Residencies and festival readings have taken her to France, India and China, amongst other locations and she was the recipient of the 2009 Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary.

Her latest collection is Cailleach: The Hag of Beara published by Bloodaxe in 2

EVENTS - 2010 Archives

Tenth anniversary celebrations launch 5th Feb 2010 Amazingly we at Working Artist Studios (WAS) have been together for TEN years now: surely a cause for celebration! And who needs an excuse? So, this year, we're going to push the boat out, beginning with an evening of poetry and music, featuring such luminaries as Liam Kenneally, Bill Hogan, Tim Abbott, Breeda Murphy, Tim Daly, Eleanor Uí Dhrisceoil, Paul Ó Colmáin and many more! Please join us, feel free to bring along an instrument or a poem or a song - oh, and, if you're drinking, a bottle of wine (or whatever you're having yourself!) as there'll be no cover charge. It's in WAS, 71, North Street, Skibbereen on Friday next, 5th February at 7.30pm. See you then!

New 2010 Galleries online. The latest work by our Artists are up online.


EVENTS - 2009 Archives

Áine Moynihan
Poetry Reading, Áine Moynihan, Friday October 23rd at 8.00pm Our next guest reader here in Outer Space, Working Artist Studios, 71 North St, Skibbereen is Áine Moynihan, who lives In Dún Chaoin, Corca Dhuibhne, Co.Kerry, who writes in English and as Gaeilge (in Irish).Áine Moynihan has worked as an actor in theatre, television and radio. She graduated in Arts and Education from UCD and Psychotherapy from UCC. She founded and runs the Youth Theatre Company, AnnÓg, in Dingle, Co.Kerry. She has lived on the islands of Inishere and Cape Clear. She now divides her time between writing and directing and is engaged in research into actor training.
Her most recent book is Canals of Memory (Doghouse, 2008).

"...so fresh, so appealing and accomplished." Eavan Boland

"A deep sense of humanity, a considered and beautiful tone of of compassion..." Thomas McCarthy



Book Reading 8th August '09
On the evening of Saturday the 8th of August 2009 at 8:00 pm there is a Book Reading by the author of Echoes and Shadows, Micheál Fanning, as well as an appearance by John Minihan, whose photographs accompany the book, (click on the book to enlarge). It will be held at our venue Outer Space at 71 North Street Skibbereen. An excerpt from the book jacket:

"The book commences with an evocation of Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages and from then on the poet travels through the many Kerry villages and towns of his childhood."

There will be cheese wine and grapes provided as refreshments. There is a cover charge of 5 euros against expenses. We've had some wonderful evenings here in Working Artist Studios and expect this one to be just as interesting and entertaining. Music will also form part of the evening with Paul Ó Colmáin and Breeda Murphy. We look forward to seeing you there!



Art Adventure to France - Working Artist Studios
For ten days from March 1st, our complete Artists Group headed off by car and Ferry to a small village near Lassay les Chateaux on the Normandy Brittany border for ten days of drawing, sketching and painting. Read more here....



Video Event
The edited Video of our event in Working Artist Studios - Beginning of Spring Imbolc (the festival at St.Brigid's Day), Poetry reading and music now online here...


Various events are planned for July and August 2009 such as a Book Launch and an evening of Punk Music all to be held in our own Mini Hall. Check in at the Gallery and Studios for more information.


Our Group member, Marie Cullen is now holding weekly evening classes for adults interested in exploring collage work and skills surrounding collage, at our premises. You can contact Marie here....

News and results from the First Sketch Crawl on Saturday January 10th 2009 - a great day out sketching in Skibbereen. Check it out here....

Our new shopping Cart is now live and online. This will be updated throughout the year with new work from each artist. Here it is....

One of our policies is that everyone, if at all possible, should be able to afford to acquire and enjoy our art. So depending on the artist and the work, you have the possibility of purchasing any piece you may be interested in through staged payments - please enquire.

We've setup one of our three Galleries as a 'Drawing Room'. The purpose is not only the obvious, to show drawings, but also to display, sketches, wood engravings, writing, poems, small paintings and the ideas and inspiration behind our work. Unlike our other two Galleries which are rehung around every ten weeks, this Gallery is dynamic and updated by all four artists on a week-by-week basis.

We've also decided that all work displayed in The Drawing Room is priced within reach of virtually everyone. We have our policy (mentioned above), of the option of staged payments. So it really does make our art available to everyone, which is one of our wishes. Come along and explore our Drawing Room.