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Our Team

Dr. Darius Whelan

Board Member

Darius Whelan is a Senior Lecturer in Law in UCC. His research interests include Mental Health Law and Internet Regulation.  He is Director of UCC’s LLM in Intellectual Property and E Law.  Darius is co-founder of UCC's IT Law Clinic and a member of Creative Commons.  He is President of the Irish Mental Health Lawyers Association and Chair of UCC's Library Advisory Committee.  Darius is a past member of the national executive of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. He has acting and singing experience, and has written prose pieces for RTE's Sunday Miscellany and Tenx9 storytelling.
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Dr. Michael Waldron

Board Member

Dr Michael Waldron is a curator, educator, and researcher based in Cork, Ireland with an interdisciplinary background in literary criticism and art history. He is presently Assistant Curator of Collections & Special Projects at Crawford Art Gallery. He has previously lectured in English, Irish Studies, European Art History, and History of Art at University College Cork. He holds a PhD in English literature and has published on Irish artists John Hogan, Samuel Forde, Patrick Hennessy, John Noel Smith, Joseph Heffernan, John Rainey, and writer Elizabeth Bowen. He is on the editorial board of The Elizabeth Bowen Review. He has previously been co-investigator of The Samuel Forde Project (2012-14) and research assistant for Deep Maps: West Cork Coastal Cultures (2016-17). He has co-curated the exhibitions The Crawford at the Castle (2016-17) at Dublin Castle, and Samuel Forde: Visions of Tragedy (2014) and The Gibson Bequest 1919-2019: Selecting, Collecting & Philanthropy (2019-20) at Crawford Art Gallery. He is the curator of Deep Maps: West Cork Coastal Cultures (2017) at The Glucksman and several further exhibitions at Crawford Art Gallery, including Recasting Canova(2019-2022). He has also coordinated the events Living Artists in National Collections (2017) at Dublin Castle, ‘A Heart That is Free’: Terence MacSwiney in Context (2016) at Cork Opera House as part of Cork Midsummer Festival, and DUETS: Creativity in Context (2014) facilitated by REACT Knowledge Exchange Hub at Firkin Crane, Cork. Access and education is at the core of each of these projects and endeavours, whether it takes the form of teaching, interpretation, facilitation, or curation. He joined the Board of Sample-Studios in August 2021.
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Kate O’ Shea

Board Member

Kate O’ Shea is an artist with a social practice which includes printmaking, the production of ‘social spaces’ and publishing. She recently published the book Durty Words with graphic designer Victoria Brunetta. Kate has just completed an MA by Research in Printmaking as a space for solidarity and dialogue at Limerick School of Art and Design. Her work stems from a concern for contemporary social structures and the fractures within them; she established her first social space at the age of 19. After dropping out of Architecture, she converted an old farmhouse and barn located outside of Kenmare, Co. Kerry into a ‘social space’, NomNom Café and Gallery. Kate O'Shea ran this space for seven years with Aoife Scanlon. In its final year, NomNom Cafe culminated with NomShtock, an arts, music and well‐being festival that took place during the summer of 2014. To date Kate has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Using traditional printmaking processes to explore physical and mental landscapes, Kate O’ Shea creates layered images with fleeting glimpses of the urban environment. Projects that Kate has co-produced to date include: NomNom Café, NomShtock festival, Volxkuche, Rumpus zine, Stanzas zine, Durty Words, The People’s Kitchen and The Limerick Spring Festival of Politics and ideas. Kate O'Shea, aswell as this is also a board member of Sample Studios.
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John MacMonagle

Company Secretary

John MacMonagle is a Cork-based painter and graphic designer. He studied Politics and German in NIHE (now UL) (1974 - 78) later while studying in UCC he co founded the Visual Arts Society with Alice Maher. He attended the Crawford College of Art and Design (1980 - 81). After two years he dropped out to be come a member of the Cork Artist Collective, Library House Studios. Later he worked in Triskel Arts Centre before moving to live in Germany, Switzerland and the US. From 1986 to 1991 he worked in Quark, a start up desktop publishing software company based in Denver and Cork. In 1992 he set up Raven Design, a graphic design studio in Cork where he works as creative director. John has been a studio-based member of Sample-Studios since 2017 and a Board Member since 2018.
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Dr. James O’ Sullivan

Board Member

Dr. James O'Sullivan is an author, researcher and educator across various topics in the digital humanities and digital culture, specifically, digital literary and cultural studies, and computer-assisted criticism. He began a lectureship in the Department of Digital Humanities at University College Cork in July 2017, having previously held faculty positions at the University of Sheffield and Pennsylvania State University. He has also taught in an adjunct capacity at Cork Institute of Technology and Washington State University, Vancouver, and held visiting fellowships at NOVA University, Lisbon and Trinity College Dublin. Dr. James O'Sullivan is involved with a variety of digital projects, including the Cork Film Festival digital archive and Joyce Word Dictionary. He presently serves as the Director of DHSI Atlantic, sits on the Research and Innovation Committee for the College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences at University College Cork. He joined the Board of Sample-Studios in November 2020.
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​Oisín Creagh

Board Member

DESIGN FORUM Architects was established by Oisin Creagh in June 2010.  For the previous 20 years, Oisin was an Architect and Director with MOLA, Murray O'Laoire Architects. Oisin's was the Director of the Cork office of Murray O'Laoire Architects since its opening in 2001 and worked before this in the Dublin office for the previous ten years.  Oisin's projects during this period have been published and exhibited widely.  Projects completed in the last 9 years in Cork include buildings in many sectors, and  throughout the Country, as well as overseas in more recent years. Oisin is on the Board of Triskel Arts Centre, Cork Circus Factory and Sample-Studios.
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Sarah Jane Booth

Board Member

Sarah Jayne Booth is a Cork based multimedia installation artist whose work centres on domesticity, gender inequality, bodily autonomy and social histories. She maintains an actively engaged practice with a number of solo exhibitions, bursaries and significant group exhibitions in major regional galleries. She initiated and heads up the collective r. a. g. e. (realising absolute gender equality). Achievements include: a Bursary Award from Cork City Council 2021, Arts Council Professional Development Funding, 2020 and a residency at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre in 2020. Three group exhibitions in 2019: I see crimson I see red Cork, Cahoots A4 Sounds Dublin & the Kinsale Arts Festival. In 2017, Diving the Wreck: collaboration with SoftTack, UCC Cork, UCD Dublin & Lass Struggle UCL London. She’s had three solo exhibitions: Signal Arts Centre, South Tipperary Arts Centre & Bookcube Gallery. Awarded further residencies with 126 Artist–Run Gallery, Galway & Fire Station Studios, Dublin and a Cork City Council bursary in 2013. She is a studio-based member of Sample-Studios and a Member of the Board since 2017.
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Eileen O’ Hara

Minutes Secretary

Education professional with experience in marketing and fundraising. Eileen has been on the Board of Sample-Studios since May 2019. She is also a member of Sample-Studios' Education Programme Working Group.
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Jacqui Feely

Treasurer

Jacqui Feely joined Sample-Studios Board of Directors in the role of Treasurer in March 2021. She is currently Head of Finance at Cork Opera House. She has a strong affinity with and is an avid supporter of the arts and culture in Cork. She holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from the University of Limerick and is a Certified Public Accountant. She brings over 30 years of experience in finance roles across various sectors in Ireland, the US, the UK and Germany. Feely has held many voluntary community roles, including with Kanturk Arts Festival where she presented her own poetry and plays. She works to support the behind the scenes work that ensures the sustainability of this important visual arts organisation.
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Rebecca Bradley

Board Member

Rebecca Bradley is a visual artist based in Cork. Her practice consists mainly of painting but also installation of found and made objects.Since graduating from the Crawford College of Art and Design, with a BA in Fine Art painting, in 2007, she has secured many exhibition and dissemination opportunities. She has cultivated a reflective, commercial and open approach to her practice, while also building national and international audiences and professional networks. In 2013 Bradley completed an MA in Fine Art and Process. In 2017, her work was selected for group exhibitions at Wandesford Quay Gallery, and The Lavit Gallery. She was also selected for a solo exhibition 'The More You See,The Less You Hold' at Sternview Cork. The exhibition was accompanied by still there and ready, a collaborative publication containing images of paintings by her and text and poems by Sarah Hayden. This was selected by Oonagh Young for Interwoven, Dublin Art Book Fair. She is a Creative Network member of Sample-Studios, as well as a Board Member since 2017.
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Carl Dixon

Chairperson

Carl Dixon is the Owner and Senior Ecologist of DixonBrosnan Environmental Consultants. He has a broad range of experience in large scale infrastructural projects, commercial projects, agricultural developments, quarries and industrial developments. He is also an experienced free lance journalist working for national and regional publications in arts, features, sports, angling, ecology and science features.
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Sinéad Barrett

Programme Coordinator

Sinéad is a Cork-based visual artist and the Programme Coordinator of Sample-Studios' exhibitions and education programmes. She holds a BA Hons in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art and Design and brings over twenty years experience of working in project management roles in the Education, Arts and Business Sinéad formerly worked in Munster Institute of Technology (now MTU) where she supported the establishment of educational initiatives such as Girls into Science and Technology and Electronic Engineering Transition Year module.In 2014 she returned to education to study Fine Art, graduating from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2019 when she was awarded the CIT Presidents Prize for outstanding studentship and received a Crawford College of Art and Design Graduate Residency award 2019/2020. She was also awarded the Sample Studios Graduate Curatorial Residency Award 2019/2020. She is very active in her own artistic practice, having secured numerous exhibition opportunities since graduating. Her work is held in both public and private collections. As Programme Coordinator, Sinéad supports Sample-Studios multidisciplinary Education Programme, including the 'Cork Creative Careers Programme' with local primary and secondary schools and the 'Cork Young Critics and Curators Programme' with young people. Sinéad also works with our graduate residents and artists who are exhibiting in our Exhibition Programme each year.
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Aoibhie McCarthy

Artistic Director

Aoibhie McCarhty is an arts manager, curator & arts educator and, since August 2020, Artistic Director of Sample-Studios. After graduating with a B.A in Art History, Architectural History&English Literature from TCD, she worked in the National Gallery of Ireland, the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin Contemporary and Whyte’s Auctioneers before securing the Shinnors Curatorial Scholarship, M.A tracking PhD research scholarship and becoming Education Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art and eva International. She led visual arts programming at Galway Fringe Festival and Make a Move Festival before undertaking project management roles as part of regional and national initiatives such as Limerick City of Culture 2014, The Year of Irish Design 2015 and National Adult Learners’ Festival 2016. From 2016-2018, Aoibhie McCarthy was Visual Arts and Outreach Manager of Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford, where she is currently on the board of Waterford Youth Arts. From 2018-2020, she was Marketing and Development Manager of Cork International Film Festival and the Business to Arts Fundraising Fellow.
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Kim-Ling Morris

Financial Manager

Kim-Ling Morris is UK born and lived in Europe, Africa and South-East Asia before settling in Cork, Ireland. She trained and worked as a Biochemical Engineer, creating her art practice in parallel. Beginning with sculpture in Leamington Spa, UK, she continued at the École Duperré, Paris, France, also exhibiting in France. Kim-Ling Morris recieved her Fine Art Textiles Special Purpose Award at CIT Crawford College of Art & Design and has exhibited nationally. She is a member and Treasurer of the Cork Textiles Network. In 2011, she became one of three co-founding directors of Sample-Studios and now holds the role of Financial Manager. She is a also a studio-based member of Sample-Studios.
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