Bronagh Lawson is an artist based in Belfast who has written a blog about the vibrant local contemporary visual arts scene for the last ten years. Previously starting as a participant then manager she ran cross-community cross border development programmes for 13 years.
Originally from Portaferry and Strangford she is a Fulbright scholar and graduate of Winchester Achool of Art.
Bronagh is a co-founder of the Hydrangea project a Belfast — a Chicago collaboration which uses contemporary art underpinned with art therapy to act as a healing mechanism. Her book 'Belfast City of Light: Looking and Listening to Belfast Come with Me' is based on her experience as a non-churchgoer attending every church in Belfast for a service during 2019.
Who has the right to create? It’s not something you hear or read about often in the rights discussions that pervade society. Our equality legislation is a mechanism to deal with historical inequalities and many strides have been taken in this area, including the arts but what about the right to create?
Knowing that many of us will be spending much more time indoors, I’ve put together a little round-up of some interesting content that’s easily accessible, interesting and has the ability to raise your spirits and feel like you are participating in artistic activity with a local focus.
It will never happen.
Have you felt the pull of the winter solstice? Amplified this year by an extraordinary planetary shift? Fiona Ní Mhaoilir has.
One of the key skills required of an artist is that of observer, looking and interpreting.
What steps do people need to take to be a successful artist? If there was a formula, would it be obsolete as soon as people knew about it?
50 per cent of people in a recent survey by Thrive the audience development organisation (supported by the Arts Council of NI) have been accessing arts and culture online during the pandemic. Maybe you are one of them?
Transmuting our visual language is part of the role of the artist, acting as a conduit for what we see and feel around us, sometimes acting as a mirror.
What about a little calmness? Every visual artist has a story to tell, some are self-taught, some went to art college straight from school, others like Marie Simpson from West Belfast went to Belfast School of Art as a mature student.
Anna Donovan has been based in Artists at the Mill in Conway Mill for a number of years. After specialising in Ceramics, she became a prop-maker for the Lyric theatre before moving back into her own practice, initially painting and object-making before accepting that ceramics was her real calling.
There was a time when anyone interested in design locally had to wait for the public sector to make their annual box-tick events on the subject area to get their design fix.
Welcome news this morning (Monday) for arts organisations as the Communities Minister Carál Ní Chuilín says she has given the green light for financial support to be released this week in a recovery package to support the creative and heritage sectors.
One of the interesting developments happening over the last six months within arts is the blossoming of online content, with publicly-funded galleries now closed again expect all that creative energy to go online.
What takes a person out onto the streets to demonstrate? How do they react once there?
If your ever pass Peas Park on the Skegioneil-Glandore Avenue area of North Belfast, you will be familiar with the gardens billboard which is often taken over by various commissioned artists.