Soap Box Sessions
[A Public Enquiry for Artists, in the West of Ireland 18th and 19th May 2007]
Galway Arts centre

As a response to an invitation from Galway Arts Centre to coordinate a discursiveforum and networking opportunity for visual artists, SoapBox Sessions was devised by Sally Timmons as an event to create a discursive forum and networking opportunity for visual artists in the West of ireland.
Artists were provided a unique opportunity to meet with invited guest
curators for designated ten minute soapbox sessions and to attend an evening award ceremony celebrating creative activity in the west of Ireland.

The Panel were:
Pierre Coinde and Gary O’Dwyer [Centre of Attention –London]
Austin Ivers [G126]
Aoibheann McNamara [Ard Bia]
Maoliosa Boyle [Void – Derry]
Marianne Greated [Glasgow]
Sile O'Sullivan [Basement – Dundalk]
Sally Timmons [Via – Dublin]

Soapbox Sessions was a platform to enable artists in the West of Ireland gain visibility and engagement with critics and peers. I decided to present a live performance work in the form of a citation or declaration blending the theory of my research project with autobiographical texts alongside my views on the state of visual art culture in the West (from my perspective as both artist and curator). The presentation was part subjective, part objective – a juxtaposition of voices.

See Scripts folder for the text of my presentation.