Creative Spark. Sarah Daly, Executive Director

Regional Focus County Louth

AAEX (Art as Exchange)

Bernhard Gaul Member & Co-Founder

Creative Spark

Sarah Daly Executive Director

CREATIVE SPARK IS a dedicated enterprise centre and training hub for the arts and creative industries in the North East of Ireland. Based in Dundalk, the organisation supports creativity, innovation, education and job creation through forward-thinking to expand the innovative capacity of the region. It operates as a non-profit organisation and social enterprise with a particular focus on the development of creative ideas in the enterprise sector. Opened in 2012, Creative Spark has 20 small enterprise units, a suite of meeting and training rooms, hot-desk/co-working facilities and creative production workshops available for individuals, SMEs, business organisations, community groups and educators.

To date, Creative Spark has supported the creation of 127 jobs, plus 65 visual artist members through its Print Studio. Since 2012, more than 4,500 people have participated in our training programmes in entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity, working closely with Local Enterprise Office Louth, LMETB, Louth Leader Partnership, Dundalk Institue of Technology and the Dundalk-based artist-led collective, Art as Exchange (AAEX).

Providing access to resources and facilities has been key to the success of Creative Spark to date. Our Print Studio opened in early 2014, offering screen-printing, etching and digital printing facilities. We also has a kiln room with equipment for the production of ceramics, glass and enameling.

In 2014 Creative Spark launched an artist-in-residence programme with support from Create Louth, Louth County Council Arts Service. 31 Irish and international artists have since participated in the programme. Creative Spark also curates an annual exhibition of work made during artists’ residencies, which takes place at An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk. This exhibition generally takes place in October each year and features a side exhibition of printmaking from the members of the Print Studio. Past Irish-based artists-in-residence include Seán Cotter, Anthony Haughey, Petra Berntsson, Thomas Brezing and Marie Claire Kehoe. Our current artist-in-residence is Riley Waite, an Irish artist based in southern California, who focuses on narrative-based figurative painting.

Creative Spark aims to become a regionally recognised centre for the delivery of creative participation and the provision of art facilities embedded in the community. We have initiated many creative community programmes, bringing people of all ages and walks of life from all around Dundalk and the wider Louth area together to unlock their creative potential.

Creative Spark has recently secured funding to build an extension to house a new FabLab, as well as expanding co-working spaces for artists and makers. Alongside the FabLab, the extension will include a dedicated design and learning studio, a video conferencing training room, a community café, reception and exhibition areas. The FabLab model complements Creative Spark, as a place for members to work, test products and concepts, and as a place to learn, via a range of technical and skills training programmes. This project is currently at planning stage and the Creative Spark team hopes to begin construction in mid-2020, with a view to opening the facility in 2021.

The FabLab aims to support new creative industries, particularly for creatives in need of digital tools for their practices, such as those working in the visual arts, product design, film/TV, and so on. The FabLab’s equipment will include laser cutters, 3D Printers, CNC machines, electronics, 3D software, a materials library and other digital design and fabrication tools with an integrated programme of training.

The future of Creative Spark, in collaboration with other cultural and enterprise actors, is to encourage people with an interest in design and creative business to consider relocating to the region, in turn increasing demand for additional workspaces and growing an entrepreneurial culture through the use of its facilities.

creativespark.ie

Riley Waite, Ian Was Here, oil on canvas; courtesy of the artist Caroline Duffy, Boundless, AAEX Installations, November 2019; photograph by David Martin, courtesy of AAEX

AAEX ( ART AS EXCHANGE ) was founded in September 2016 following an open-call facilitated by Creative Spark, inviting artists in North Louth and the surrounding areas to set up a platform for exchange and communication, and to develop engaged public art. It was initiated in response to a perceived lack of any such initiative in the area and was taken up immediately by many creative practitioners. From the outset, AAEX has never had less than 14 active members and has grown to 37 at the time of writing. From the start, overcoming the professional isolation often encountered by visual artists was one of our core objectives, which very quickly turned into the wider ambitions of collaborating on a regular basis and embarking on community art projects. This has been followed in recent years by public art initiatives, which try to expand upon what is already available in the region by exploring alternative spaces and encouraging large-scale art interactions, which aim to integrate the wider areas of visual arts experience focused on communication and exchange.

As a core principle, AAEX is open to artists and creative practitioners of all career stages, skill sets, interests and backgrounds. Members are encouraged to make suggestions, develop initiatives and host workshops to share their skills and experiences. We aim to pursue a collaborative approach to opportunities. For example, in preparation for a recent exhibition, all members who were happy to commit to the process, were given the opportunity to develop individual or small group installations over two months, with ongoing group feedback and the support of a curator; strengthening the overall project through peer critique and group learning.

Gatherings and Public Art Initiatives AAEX members meet for regular gatherings roughly every two weeks, which are often handson skills exchange workshops at the Creative Spark Print Studio. These sessions are often led by a member, introducing a technique or artform, interspersed with social gatherings, discussions or gallery visits, supporting exhibitions by AAEX members and other artists in the region.

For our first public project, AAEX members created over 300 hand-printed postcards, which (pre-addressed and franked) were handed out at the Drogheda Arts Festival 2017 and several locations in Dundalk, with the request to alter them and send them back to us. Over 200 postcards were returned to us and then presented at Creative Spark for National Drawing Day. Recently, AAEX also teamed up with local curator, Anne Mager, to develop an ambitious exhibition of art installations by 20 AAEX members in a vacant shop on Clanbrassil Street and in other public locations in Dundalk. The event, running from 15–29 November 2019, included a panel discussion ‘Where is the Art in Dundalk?’, hosted by the local art initiative, ‘the corridor’.

Community Projects and Programme AAEX aims to promote community participation in aesthetic projects and to present art as a tangible process through the work of our artists. For the last four years, AAEX has collaborated with Creative Spark and Inspire Wellbeing on their annual First Fortnight mental health awareness event. In 2019, we embarked on a workshop programme with the Toberona Youth Club, supported by Creative Ireland/Louth County Council and Create Louth. For 2020, AAEX have received Creative Ireland funding for an 8-week mother and baby project, in collaboration with the Craobh Rua Community Centre. We are also excited to be collaborating with ‘the corridor’ again on ‘Party Wall’ – a workshop programme followed by a public performance facilitated by Italian artist, Corinne Mazzoli. For the summer, AAEX is preparing a three-day event, during which artists will create works from recycled materials, with a variety of workshops and opportunities for the public to get involved.

AAEX is kindly supported and facilitated by Creative Spark in an ongoing collaboration aimed at furthering creative exchange in the region. AAEX have also received support from Dundalk BIDS, Dundalk Credit Union, Local Enterprise Office Louth, Ronan Halpin and irishstamps.ie. For more information, or to get involved, please visit our website or contact us at aaex.artspark@gmail.com.