IADT Student Award

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.

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