IADT Student Award

2019 - 2021

About the Award

This award was a three-year partnership with Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, (IADT) BA in Art Programme. It offered a graduating student an opportunity to be included in an exhibition at The Dock and an award of €1000.

The intention of this partnership between The Dock and IADT was to highlight the work of an emerging artist of note and offer them the chance to make connections in the North West of Ireland.

Jamie Cross was the inaugural award winner in 2019 and the winner of the 2020 IADT Student Award is Ciara McGoldrick.

The Dock was delighted to have the privilege of working with some of Ireland's most dynamic artists and to announce that the winner of the 2021 IADT Student Award is Lauren Conway.

2021 Award Winner Lauren Conway. Read more

Lauren’s Conway's practice explores archival materials, documentation from site visits, and found images from her teenage years, and uses the process of drawing to explore experiences of education in Ireland.

Through the process of drawing Conway seeks to tease out a commonality between collective memories of being a participant within public educational spaces. Her graduate exhibition, A Great Public Meeting explores empty educational spaces that question and challenge the aspirational promises put forward by the state through formal education. The work opens up a space for further connections to be made beyond the educational. Through the use of archival materials, documentation from site visits, and found images from her teenage years, Conway explores tensions between the empty school sites and the dense, awkward dancefloors of teenage discos.

Selected group exhibitions include DHG Student Forum iii Rendering New Realities – Access and Alterity, The Douglas Hyde, Dublin, (2021) cruxx.project, Rathmichael Ring Fort, (2021) and her graduate exhibition A Great Public Meeting, IADT On Show, (2021) which will be exhibited at the RDS Visual Arts Awards in the RHA this November. Her writings have been published in Bloomers Art Magazine, RHA Young Art Writers Zine, and in the online programme for cruxproject.net. She is currently a member of Ormond Art Studios, Dublin.

2020 Award Winner Ciara Mc Goldrick. Read more

Ciara McGoldrick spent the majority of her working life as a partner in the Decorative Arts Centre, which was involved in domestic, commercial and restoration projects in Dublin and abroad. She returned to education and in 2016 was accepted onto the BA (Hons) Art at IADT.

Her practice involves the research of urban space and landscape, exploring issues and concerns that come from these contexts. She makes formal sculptural pieces and drawings to document and to extract points of curiosity. Her process often begins with a walk in and around the city, visiting sites to take snapshots of activities and encounters in her daily routine. The random elements and familiar objects she encounters prompt the selection of her particular materials. She observes “human movement is directed along routes which have been designed and organised by architects and planners. Research into architecture, infrastructure, what lies above and below ground, and changing environmental conditions inform the work I make”

“ Receiving the Dock IADT Student Award is hugely encouraging. I see it as an endorsement of the choices I have made as to the particular lines of enquiry to pursue and it further motivates me to continue to expand my artistic horizons. Learning and refining my creative practice is best resolved, I believe, through a process of learning-by-doing. The award facilitates me to do this. I am thrilled to get the award.” Ciara McGoldrick speaking about what the award means to her.

“I am delighted that we have had the opportunity to meet with and make this award to Ciara McGoldrick. 2020 has been a tough year for students in the arts, with many of the usual opportunities offered to them having changed so radically. IADT have created a beautiful online platform for their creative student which is great a resource. The board and the team here at The Dock send our very best wishes to the graduating student and are delighted to bring this partnership forward in 2021. I am looking forward to working with Ciara in 2021." Sarah Searson, Director, The Dock

2019 Award Winner Jamie Cross. Read more.

Jamie Cross on his artistic practice ........

"I graduated this year from IADT Dun Laoghaire with a BA(Hons) in Art and have recently started the MA in Art + Research Collaboration. I was shortlisted for the RDS Visual Arts Award 2019 curated by Janet Mullarney and David Quinn where I was joint winner of the R.C. Lewis Crosby Award. I was also shortlisted for the Ormond Art Studios graduate award 2019 which gave me the opportunity to be part of an evening of talks hosted by Ormond Art Studios.

My artistic practice tends to reflect an answer to a question or proposition. When does a space begin? Do you have to experience a space in order to fully understand it? What is on the inside? I am motivated by the need to answer such questions and portray the answers through my work. I am interested in how a certain type of space is wholly dependent on how such space is perceived (or is capable of being perceived). I aim to explore hidden (and sometimes inaccessible) spaces that are not obvious to the human eye and the uninhabitable space of materials, such as the interior of an electrical device or the journey electricity travels to a light bulb. My curiosity as to how a device works or operates often encourages me to dismantle objects and from there, an idea for my work stems.

Technological devices such as laptops and endoscopic/360° cameras are my preferred medium for realising and showcasing my work. My main research tool is my Android mobile phone which I use for photographing, recording footage, capturing sounds and GPS tracking. I take inspiration from every-day things such as mid-point architecture, household objects or random YouTube videos."

About the Award

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