WEST Belfast artist Patrick Hickey has been awarded a grant from a new fund set up to support the North's d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists to develop their work and enable them to reach new audiences.
This fund is part of a £40,500 grant allocated to University of Atypical to support d/Deaf and Disabled Artists in the North.
The University of Atypical on behalf of the Unlimited and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation has awarded £1,000 grants to 11 d/Deaf and disabled artists to support their professional development.
Awards were made to artists across a number of disciplines including Dance, Literature and Language Arts, Drama and Theatre, Music and Opera, Visual Arts, Film, TV and Combined Arts.
Patrick is a contemporary visual artist and part-time Phd researcher who has exhibited his work in Belfast and Derry. The grant will allow him to devote more time to his work.
The next programme, the Chris Ledger Legacy awards, opens in May 2021 and is named after the former CEO of University of Atypical who sadly passed away in the summer of 2020.
Sean Fitzsimons, Chairperson of the University of Atypical, stated: “Covid 19 has caused great difficulties for many people in our community, especially the d/Deaf and disabled artists but thanks to the generosity of Unlimited and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, we are able to provide much needed funding to help d/Deaf and disabled artists continue working and to facilitate career development opportunities."
The Creating Time awards are designed to provide d/Deaf and disabled artists with funding to access mentoring to enhance knowledge or skills, develop new ways to promote their work or simply to buy the time needed to continue with their professional practice.
Jo Verrent, Senior Producer with the arts commissioning programme Unlimited, commented: “We are delighted to be able to use some of our emergency funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation to support artists based in Northern Ireland, an ambition we have wanted to fulfil for some time."
