Pallas Projects/Studios
(founded 1996) is a not-for-profit artist-run organisation dedicated to the facilitation of artistic production and discourse, via the provision of affordable artists studios in Dublin's city centre, and curated projects. PP/S addresses the necessity of providing space for artistic production and exhibition, and foregrounds the role of the project as a constant agent of discourse and transformation. Indeed, Pallas Projects is an umbrella label for a variety of spaces, exchanges, off-site projects, exhibitions, talks, resource programmes, research and publications conceived of and put into practice over a 20-year period.
Pallas Projects collaborates with artists, curators and writers to engage and develop current Irish contemporary art, through solo projects by Irish and international artists, alongside occasional thematic group exhibitions, and initiated exchanges with artists’ groups around Ireland and abroad. The ongoing project, with collaborators numbering well into the hundreds, has included exhibitions/performances by Sarah Browne & Gareth Kennedy, Nina Canell & Robin Watkins, Manon De Boer, Brendan Earley, Clodagh Emoe, Alicia Frankovich, Martin Healy, Jesse Jones, Gereon Krebber, Niamh McCann, Nathaniel Mellors, Garrett Phelan, John Smith, Stephanie Syjuco, Hito Steyerl, and Mark Titchner.
PP/S is dedicated to providing a constant space for artistic production and exhibition in Dublin, via an alternative art methodology and DIY work ethic. With the backdrop of an unwillingness of developers to allow for the provision of a long-term cultural aspect to the regeneration of city-centre areas throughout the boom years, PP/S has been searching, inhabiting, and fighting to maintain as many as eight semi-permanent locations since 1996, and many more temporary offsite exhibition/project scenarios. These have included a four-year exhibition programme in a semi-derelict block of council flats, a white cube space in a former milking parlour, and collaborative projects with/in Limerick City Gallery of Art; NCAD Gallery; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Dublin Docklands; Fire Station Artists’ Studios; The Red Stables; The Model, Sligo; Catalyst Arts, Belfast; 126, Galway; The Black Mariah, Cork; Project 304, Bangkok; Sub-Urban Video Lounge, Rotterdam; Auto Italia South East, London; Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. A stubborn willingness to adapt and transform has enabled the project to both maintain and change, providing a fluid continuity within a difficult context.
Now relocated to a long–term studio & project space in The Coombe. Our new complex is an open space dedicated to the making and showing of visual art to our peers as well as a wide and diverse audience: via exhibitions, talks and tours, all are welcome and encouraged to engage with our programme of contemporary art and artist-led practices.
Board biographies:
Caroline Cowley is a curator and Public Art Co-ordinator with Fingal County Council. She has commissioned and produced a series of high-profile projects with artists Mark Garry, Brian Duggan, Christine Mackey, Martina Coyle, Garrett Phelan and Dennis McNulty, associated publications and talks such as Commissions + International Public Art Symposium, 2012. Her remit within Fingal County Council’s Arts office also extends to public events such as graduate professional development, policy, exhibitions, talks, festival programming and the Council’s art collection. Caroline holds a BA in History of Art from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from University College Dublin, and a Masters in curatorial practice IADT (MAVIS).
Sarah Farrell works as Advisory Counsel in the Office of the Attorney General (2016–2017) currently at Principal Officer level. She was Legal Adviser to the Minister for Health & Children (2007 – 2011). Her many lecturing positions have included Trinity College Law School (1998-1999), Lecturer in School of Environmental Health, DIT (1996-1998), Tutor, Constitutional Law & Family Law, Trinity College Dublin (1993–1998) and Researcher, AHEAD (Association for Higher Education Access & Disability), Dublin (1993–1994). Sarah was also a member of Law Reform Commission Expert Working Group on Judicial Review (2002). She has been a member of various Executive Boards of voluntary, charitable and arts organisations including Amnesty International Ireland, Sonas Housing Services, Black Church Print Studio (1997–2012) and Independent Studios (2016–present).
Clodagh Kenny is currently working as an independent Art Consultant supporting private companies with public art commissions and supporting the development of their artistic policies. For over ten years she was director of Fire Station Artists’ Studios, a significant national visual arts organisation, supporting professional visual artists. Clodagh is also on the board of CREATE, the national development agency for collaborative arts, and on the Programme Board, Royal Hibernian Academy.
Brian Duggan is an artist working internationally in sculpture, film, installation, printing, publishing and sound. He graduated in Crawford CCAD Cork 1995, and received his Masters from IADT in 2005. His solo exhibitions include Crawford Art Gallery 2015; Balzer Projects Basel 2015; Discovery, Art Brussels 2015; ISCP New York 2013; Visual, Carlow, 2012; and Irish Museum of Modern Art Process room, 2011. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Hugh Lane Gallery, the OPW and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He was the co-founder, co-curator and co-director of Pallas Studios and its gallery offshoots in Dublin from 1996 to 2009.
Paul McGowan was a financial services tax partner in KPMG (Ireland) for more than 25 years and became Global Head of Financial Services Tax for KPMG (International). He is a former Chairman of the Irish Funds Industry Association and the IFSC Funds Working Group. He currently holds a number of non-executive directorships including Chairman of AEGON Ireland Plc, BNRG Renewables and Coronation Capital Ltd and is also a Director of Epoch Investments Fund Plc and FEXCO Aviation Services. He was appointed to the EU Arbitration Panel on transfer pricing by the Irish Government. Mr McGowan is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and holds a business studies degree from Trinity College Dublin and a Diploma in Corporate Financial Management from Harvard Business School.
Mark Cullen is an artist and curator, co-founder of Pallas Studios and is currently co-director/curator. Curated projects include Offside at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, MAIM XI, part of the exhibition .all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reGGae at IMMA, and the Pallas Heights exhibition programme (2003–2006). From 2005–2007 he was the International Representative of Visual Artists Ireland (VAI), representing Ireland at the 16th General Assembly of the International Association of Art held at Beijing Biennial, China, 2005, and the VAI at The World Summit on Arts and Culture held in The Sage Gateshead, Newcastle/Gateshead, UK 2006. Cullen curated the visual art section of Darklight Festival from 1999–2004. He was artist in residence in the School of Physics, University College Dublin in 2013–2014.
Gavin Murphy is an artist & co-director of Pallas Projects/Studios. Curated projects include Dennis McNulty’s A cloud of soft equations (2014) with Irish Architecture Foundation; British film-artist John Smith, The world seems a long way away (2011); and House Projects (2006/7). Solo exhibitions include Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (2010 & 2014); Royal Hibernian Academy (2012), and group exhibitions include Changing States: Contemporary Irish Art & Francis Bacon’s Studio, BOZAR, Brussels (2013); and After the Future, eva International, Limerick (2012). He has received numerous awards from The Arts Council, and his work is included in the permanent collections of the OPW and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.
Advisor, compliance: Lorraine Lawler is Compliance Officer with Accounting Technicians Ireland - Corporate Governance Advisor. She completed a 1st Class Hons Law Degree in 2007, and completed a specialist Diploma Level 9 in Audit, Risk and Compliance with Chartered Accountants Ireland and the ACOI (Association of Compliance Officers of Ireland). She has been a Compliance Officer with Accounting Technicians Ireland for the past 5 years, mainly working in Educational and regulatory compliance, and risk register/analysis. She sits on the Audit & Risk Board as Secretary, and on the Programme Board, Management Board and the Apprenticeship Steering Group in Accounting Technicians.