PROGRAMME Staff Open Call 2024
In Conversation Event: Artist Michelle Browne introduces Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party leader, and chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality on Tuesday 27 February 2024, 4PM—5PM, NCAD Gallery / Foyer, HCH Building. All are welcome to attend.
Sound Installation: Mná Na hÉireann | Michelle Browne, 27 February—12 March 2024, 11AM—6PM, NCAD Gallery / Foyer, HCH Building.
Artist Talk with Michelle Browne Friday 8 March 2024, 1:15PM, NCAD Gallery / Foyer, HCH Building. All are welcome to attend.

As part of the Staff Open Call 2024, the NCAD Gallery presents Mná Na hÉireann, a sound installation by artist Michelle Browne programmed in advance of the upcoming Irish constitutional referendums, the Family Amendment and the Care Amendment for public vote on Friday 8 March 2024. Mná na hÉireann speaks to women’s engagement with public political life in Ireland and the continued existence of article 41.2 in the constitution which designates a special place of women in the home. The work considers the home as a site of political activity by highlighting campaigning or activism undertaken from the home by women. On Tuesday 27 March at 4pm, Browne will introduce Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party leader, and chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality, to discuss her work on gender equality in her role as Chair of the Committee and the evolution of the current wording of the referendum being put to the vote in March. Find information on Families and Care referendums here

Ivana Bacik is a barrister and spent many years in criminal practice. As Reid Professor of Criminal Law, she taught Criminal Law and Criminology at Trinity College Dublin until her election to the Dáil in 2021. As a student union leader, she was taken to court and threatened with prison for providing information on abortion – a case which paved the way for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment and the legalisation of abortion in Ireland. A long-time campaigner for constitutional change, Ivana has been a leading national and local voice for marriage equality, repeal the 8th and gender equality. Ivana was one of the founders of the Portobello Educate Together multi-denominational school start-up group – which led to the foundation of the thriving Canal Way ETNS, Dublin 8 – she still sits on the board of the school.

Ivana was elected to Dáil Eireann to serve as TD for Dublin Bay South in July 2021, following a bye-election, and has been serving as leader of the Labour Party since March 2022. Ivana was first elected to serve in Seanad Eireann in 2007 and was re-elected to the Seanad in the three following elections; she has seen more of her opposition bills become law than any other senator. Her legislation has tackled issues such as working conditions for freelancers, democratic oversight for Dublin Bay, secular marriage rights, women’s health rights and LGBT equality.
 

Michelle Browne is an artist and curator based in Dublin, Ireland. She studied Sculpture at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and a Masters in Art Praxis at the Dutch Art Institute based in Arnhem, Holland. Much of her work is performance based and collaborative. She has performed and exhibited both nationally and internationally recently taking part in My Brilliant Friend, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; Future Histories at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin as part of a series of works commissioned for the 2016 Easter Rising Centenary Celebrations; Excuse me I'm not finished, NCAD Gallery, Dublin; Forecast, Kilkenny; Using the Museum, Van Abbemuseum, Holland; Motivational Deficit, Crawford Gallery, Cork. In 2017 Michelle was selected from over 500 applicants worldwide to take part in Creative Producers International , a global talent development programme led by Watershed in Bristol. Michelle is one of 15 creative producers from around the world who will engage in new kinds of conversations with creative communities, citizens and city authorities, to become change makers in their cities. For more information about Playable City click here . Michelle has curated a number of exhibitions including Between You and Me and the Four Walls for IETM at Project Arts Centre in Dublin 2013, Tulca Season of Visual Art 2010 and These Immovable Walls: Performing Power at Dublin Castle 2014. She has been commissioned and supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council, Culture Ireland and The Office of Public Works. Michelle is currently lecturer in Sculpture and Expanded Practice at NCAD.

Mná Na hÉireann was made in 2016, the year gender quotas were introduced for selection of political candidates in Ireland. Browne interviewed a variety of women who are or have been candidates or public representatives in Ireland to gain insight into their motivations for getting involved in politics. Drawn from across the political sphere from the local to national, presidential and European levels of representation, Browne focuses on the politicising moment for women that drew them into public life and their mentors or supporters on the way.
The installation consists of a 50 minute sound piece that is a composite of many voices of women to give a portraits of what women’s engagement in politics looks like. This in turn gives us a portrait of a nation over the 40 years of public life that is covered by the interviewees and in particular women’s position and role within Irish society in that time. Mná na hÉireann is a non-partisan look at women's engagement in politics, to celebrate the many women who have contributed to the political life of this nation.

Find information on Families and Care referendums here: https://www.electoralcommission.ie/referendums/

Mná na hÉireann was commissioned by Catherine Marshall for Kathleen Lynn: Insider on the Outside at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo in 2016. Collection of the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon