Commissions
Traveller Collection
Seamus Nolan’s commission investigates the idea of archive, deconstructs ideas on ‘heritage’ and engages with communities of place and of interest, involving Traveller activists and archivists. Artist Seamus Nolan, working with Paveé Point, representatives from the Travelling community and researcher Dr Eve Olney, is engaging in a collaborative process of enquiry with cultural practitioners, activists and archivists in an exploration of contested histories to examine notions of representations of Traveller culture and heritage.
Currently, documentation of Traveller history and culture exists in State-managed collections such as museums and libraries, or in independent collections, such as those maintained by Traveller agencies and individual collectors. There is no central database or inventory of this material. The aim of this project is the development of a database where collections are brought together, where information on what exists, where it exists, and how it can be accessed is clarified. An online database, www.travellercollection.ie is open to submission, moderation and curation by Travellers from around the country.
The project also facilitates workshops focused on managing collections with relation to Traveller culture in Ireland, meeting with individual agencies and groups, and looking specifically at the concerns and needs of that community. It is hoped that this process will lead to the development of a centralised database of Traveller Culture which is accessible to all agencies throughout the country, and equally managed by all agencies.
The project will be presented in Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, as part of an exhibition to coincide with the CAPP (Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme) dissemination event: Practice and Power, 20-23 June 2018.
This is a co-commission between Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and supported by the Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP), a transnational programme co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
COMMUNITY_ Traveller
