This workshop covers the basics of good record-keeping and archiving for artists. Developing an efficient and reliable system to manage your research material, workings, artworks and documentation will help you in your professional art practice but it will also ensure that your legacy is informed by your own decisions and preferences. The workshop will consider physical and digital material, how they relate to each other and how they are cross-referenced. It will also cover the art of editing and reduction. This process can be difficult for an artist and is often easier for a curator who more frequently sees and selects work in greater numbers.
about the facilitator
Brian Mac Domhnaill is an arts administrator and curator with thirteen years’ experience planning, producing and promoting exhibitions. Prior to this he worked as a professional archaeologist for fourteen years and this inevitably led to some archival leanings in his own art practice, including the salvaging and archiving of an entire house. During his time at SIRIUS he curated three exhibitions drawing on archives, namely ‘Spike Island: People and Place 1847-1883’ (2018), ‘School Days: Cobh & Great Island’ (2019) and ‘Royal Cork Yacht Club, Queenstown/Cobh, 1854-1966’ (2020). In 2023 for Cork Art Society’s 60-year anniversary Brian co-curated an exhibition with Sarah Kelleher called ‘Taking Form: Students of the Year 1973-77 | Maud Cotter, Eilis O’Connell, Vivienne Roche’. This featured archive material from each of the artists and highlighted the potential of such items when retained and catalogued correctly. Early in 2026 Brian received, processed and archived the material legacy of artist Anna Barden culminating in a memorial exhibition at Lavit Gallery. With support from NIVAL he continues to work on the extensive archives of Cork Arts Society (t/a Lavit Gallery) which date back to 1963.
Email Aoibhie director@sample-studios.com to book your place.
