ABOUT
Experience
Mark Dion, esacped "Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit"
Commissioned for Folkestone Triennial 2008
always willing to try the impossible.
I have worked in the cultural sector since 2003 following my appointment as Arts Officer to a burgeoning arts charity, the Creative Foundation (recently renamed Creative Folkestone) established by The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust on the east Kent coast.
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This was my spring board into site-specific art commissioning and following the curation of exhibitions in dilapidated shop fronts, flooded basements and overgrown carparks, I became Assistant Curator for two iterations of the Folkestone Triennial curated by Andrea Schlieker. I worked on over 20 projects for artists that include Susan Philipsz, Ruth Ewan, Zineb Sedira, Nils Norman, Hew Locke and Cornelia Parker. My role extended to every part of the projects, from the initial artist brief and artist site visits to individual project research and development, production and securing sites.
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In 2011, I left my coastal hometown and moved to London to work for Cornelia Parker assisting in the production of a Thames and Hudson monograph and with the Registrar and Archive department at Hauser & Wirth on the archive of Phyllida Barlow. In 2014, I moved to a Producer/Curator position at creative agency, Futurecity and led on multiple commissions across London, Berkshire, Hampshire and Cambridge. I delivered a year-long engagement project with art and architecture practice, public works and initiated five commissions for Royal Papworth Hospital in the new Cambridge Biomedical campus.
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I honed my project management skills with the temporary position of Project Manager/ Curator for Art on the Underground, London Underground’s pioneering public art commissioning arm. I worked with curators Kiera Blakey & Jessie Vaughan on the delivery of a surface level commission with Assemble and the initial development of a complex subterranean commission with Heather Phillipson. I also produced the installation of a film commission by artists Broomberg & Chanarin in King’s Cross St Pancras Underground Station.
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From November 2017 to May 2019, I worked with UP Projects, an Arts Council NPO, developing and delivering public art commissions with social relevance across the UK. I managed & coordinated a mix of projects from self-initiated to client lead commissions, focussing on a surface level project with Sonia Boyce for Crossrail, the longest public artwork in the U.K, a multi-site commission with Jessie Brennan for the GLA and the development of a yearlong research project with Jasleen Kaur and project partner Touchstones, Rochdale.
Since 2020, I have worked with Sonia Boyce OBE RA as Head of Production and Studio.
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Artists, Organisations & Clients
I have developed and delivered projects for artists, galleries, partners and clients including the following:
Artists/ Designers: Assemble, Charles Avery, Adam Ball, Phyllida Barlow, David Batchelor, Simon and Tom Bloor, Sonia Boyce, Jessie Brennan, Broomberg and Chanarin, Adam Chodzko, Nathan Coley, Tacita Dean, Jeremy Deller, Mark Dion, AK Dolven, Tracey Emin, Ruth Ewan, Spencer Finch, Hamish Fulton, Sigune Hamann, Sejla Kameric, Jasleen Kaur, Robert Kusmirowski, Langlands and Bell, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, Hew Locke, Kaffe Matthews, Heather and Ivan Morison, Nils Norman, Cornelia Parker, Heather Phillipson, Susan Philipsz, Olivia Plender, Stefanie Posavec, public works, Matt Raw, Matt Rowe, Zineb Sedira, Erzen Shkololli, Sarah Sparkes, Thomas Matthews, Frances Thorburn, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Gavin Wade, Mark Wallinger, Richard Wentworth, Pae White, and Richard Wilson.
Galleries, Partners, Fabricators and Installers: AB Fine Art Foundry, ADi Solutions, A J Wells, Bridgeway Construction, Bucks New University, Fraser Muggeridge Studio, Frith Street, Hauser & Wirth, IYA Studio, Links Signs, MDM Props, Meltdowns Fine Art Foundry, Mike Smith Studio, MTEC, Omni Colour, Set Works, Touchstones Rochdale, Wysing Arts Centre and University of East London.
Clients: Skanska, Berkley Homes, St William, St James, Grainger PLC; for public bodies including London Underground and Crossrail; Royal Papworth Hospital,; local authorities including GLA, London Borough of Newham, Havant Borough Council, Winchester City Council and Folkestone and Hythe District Council).
Other stuff
Ruth Ewan, "We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted to Be"
Commissioned by Folkestone Triennial 2011
I studied Fine Art at the Kent Institute of Art & Design, Canterbury and got the bug for ephemeral, site-specific and performative art from artists like Robert Smithson and Douglas Huebler and filmmakers such as Stan Brackage and Maya Deren.
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In 2005, I cofounded Club Shepway and the B&B Project Space with writer and curator, Laura Mansfield and artist Matt Rowe. Club Shepway is platform for artists, writers and educators concerned with the social and commercial development in East Kent. Through a series of residencies and site-specific projects we explored local histories, hidden memories and current affairs over a six-year period as the area underwent massive regeneration. Still locking onto its fading histories and current myths, Club Shepway aims to create a diverse and critical dialogue within the boundaries of Shepway and beyond marking an important period for the British seaside town and the UK as a whole.
Contact
Email - info@niamhsullivan.com
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