CREATIVE PRODUCERS
Our Creative Producer Network includes the six participants of our Creative Producer Programme and our Curatorial Collaborator. They are Aisling Murray, Fatoumata Gandega, Iarlaith Ní Fheorais, Nathan O’Donnell, Rachel Botha, Seán Ward, and Sara Muthi.
TRAINING PARTNERS
Our Creative Producer Programme training partners include; EVA International, Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Galway Arts Centre, Ireland at Venice, Mermaid Arts Centre, National Sculpture Factory, Ormston House, Regional Cultural Centre, Sirius Arts Centre, The Dock, The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, and VISUAL. Our development partners include Kunstverein Aughrim, Cow House Studios and The Courthouse Arts Centre.
KUNSTVEREIN
Kunstverein Aughrim is Ireland's first art initiative based on the European model of a kunstverein (from the German word kunst meaning ‘art’ and verein meaning ‘club’ or ‘association’) and is part of the franchise established by Kunstverein in Amsterdam, with sisters in Milan, New York and Toronto.
These sister kunstvereins are part of a close-knit network of domestic, not-for-profit spaces, aiming to show practices, attempts and failures of avant-garde artists (of all ages) who have been undersung in contemporary art history. The franchise was originally founded in 2009 in Amsterdam by Maxine Kopsa and Krist Gruijthuijsen, and was led until 2025 by Yana Foqué.
From the onset, the goal of the Kunstverein franchise has been to fill gaps in contemporary art history and the cultural field. Each of the sisters do this in a way that simultaneously challenges the (now) traditional formats of the institutional white cube by exploring alternative ways of mediating artististic practices. With this we bring about non-conventional hierarchies between art, artist, audience and institution, participants and authors, offering a fresh alternative to the way art can be encountered, experienced and enjoyed.
This vision is reflected in our event and exhibition programs and permeates our publications. Through our programmes we take a closer look at the relationship between visual arts, design, film, dance, and literature, in an attempt to sublimate the boundaries between them. This attitude also has an effect on the scale of our teams (small) and the structure and way in which our organisations function (agile, performative, responsive, reflective).
The network has included branches in Amsterdam, Aughrim, Milan, New York and Toronto.
AFFILIATIONS
Kunstverein Projects is also affiliated with the following institutions and initiatives:
Department of Ultimology – a research body established by Fiona Hallinan and Kate Strain at Trinity College Dublin in 2016. The Department considers that which is dead or dying across all fields of academic study as an entry point for transformative encounter.
Grazer Kunstverein – a non-profit, members-based arts organisation located on the ground floor of the historic Palais Trauttmansdorff in the centre of Graz, Austria. Established as a space for artistic production, exhibition-making and mediation, it has always resisted populist influences, instead advocating for the promotion and presentation of qualitative artistic experiments. In 2021 Tom Engels succeeded Kate Strain as the artistic director.
KCAT Arts Centre – a multi-disciplinary arts centre in Callan, Co Kilkenny, Ireland. KCAT is dedicated to fostering and nurturing creative ambition and professional development in the arts. Founded in 1999 with an emphasis on access and inclusion, KCAT is an artist-led organisation that is evolving and changing perceptions and misconceptions around arts, disability and participation.
MAINTENANT – a collaboration between Netwerk Aalst, ar/ge Kunst, B-A-U and Kunstverein Aughrim that resulted from a series of online meetings organised with a group of peers in the spring of 2020 to observe how the pandemic situation was affecting the art sector and its institutions. MAINTENANT is about institutional maintenance. Its goal is to prototype new institutional behaviours and infrastructures.
OMG – The Orthogonal Methods Group is a transdisciplinary research platform within CONNECT - the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications at Trinity College Dublin. OMG’s broad purpose is to generate new research orientations through CONNECT that can produce insights on technology, creativity and society. As a research platform, OMG aims to generate conditions for different researchers and publics to share ideas, raise questions and open up critical dialogue about ICT research with key stakeholders.
RGKSKSRG – the paired curatorial practice of Rachael Gilbourne and Kate Strain. Based between Aughrim and Dublin, RGKSKSRG commission, present and contextualise contemporary art. Through linking with sites, communities and institutions, RGKSKSRG works to create new contexts for engaged encounters between artists and audiences. These contexts involve new commissions, solo and group exhibitions, live events, curatorial residencies, talks, interviews, performances, texts, and artworks hosted online or in real life.