Cavan County Council Arts Office is piloting a new residential scheme: Cois Tine Soundscapes 2016-2017 offers a series of short-term residencies to musicians, sound and spoken word artists working within and across all genres.

Above: Cois Tine, Derrywinny, Co. Cavan

Located on the old Farnham Estate at the Southern tip of the Cavan/Fermanagh UNESCO Geo Park, is a new residential space for the creation of music, sound art and the spoken word. During this pilot phase of Cois Tine Soundscapes, artists from Ireland, UK and Norway have been selected through open competition to live and work at Cois Tine traditional Irish cottage. The artists will be staying for periods of three days up to four weeks, to write and develop new and existing work, exhibitions and performances, reach new audiences and make recordings of their work in the form of demos. Musicians and composers will be making new music, storytellers and sound artists will be creating aural, visual and sound art innovations, other artists will be working across disciplines. A small cottage with a big hearth, this residential place is a modern day expression of the age old traditions practiced beside the fire or, in the Irish expression, Cois Tine. Made possible through the generous patronage of the owner of Cois Tine cottage, Ger Hennessy, the residency programme will facilitate a wide range of talent, each of whom will have support from Cavan County Council Arts Office in realising their projects. From November 2016 to May 2017 the artists, as detailed below, range in experience and career stages, representing a wide range of disciplines.

Featuring: Danny Diamond & Tom French; Mark Crickard & Family; Michael Gallan & collaborators Annemarie Ni Churreain, Aoife Ni Bhriain and Peter Power; Gráinne Conaty; Derek Foott with Colin Aherne and Áine Mangaoang; The Jobseekerz; Dairena Ní Chinneide & Sean O Treasaigh; Anna-Mieke Bishop; Cian Rock; Claire O’Brien and Neil Quigley.

View Artist Biographies HERE

About our project

This is a partnership project with Cavan County Council and Cavan Institute with advisory support from Music Network. Cavan County Council acknowledges the Arts Council, and our long term relationship with them in arts development in County Cavan.

The Residency is for both early-mid career and established artists and the venue, a privately owned country cottage in the heart of the Lakelands, is fully furnished with audio recording equipment. The main aim of the Residency is to develop, diversify, enrich and strengthen music culture through the provision of suitable supports and facilities for music collaboration, exchange, innovation, mentorship, partnership, and other music development activities. As part of the piloting of this scheme we are offering artists the opportunity to develop new and existing work, avail of networking opportunities as well as encouraging artists to collaborate across art forms. It is intended to review this mix of activities while the Residency is live and to have a final review at the end of the pilot scheme.

Cois Tine hearth. Cois Tine roughly translating from the Irish as 'beside the fire'.

The key aims of Cois Tine are to:

● Encourage and facilitate innovative music and sound art development, partnerships,
collaboration, mentorship, peer learning and networking opportunities

● Provide a supportive environment for artistic talent through strengthening the arts
infrastructure

● Nurture a sense of vitality and community through music and sound art development
activities and public engagement

Cois Tine objectives are to establish a unique residential creative space that will:

● Expand the functionality and capacity of existing local arts spaces to include a residential
space that supports creativity by addressing needs, removing barriers, and fostering an
environment that facilitates collaboration, exchange, innovation, mentorship and other
development activities

● Promote multiple types of collaboration and engagement reflecting the diverse nature of
contemporary artistic performance, new audiences, technologies and distribution
networks

● Strengthen and diversify connections between local, national, international talent, industry
experts and other key stakeholders

● Develop a publically accessible sound archive of work arising from the residency

Cois Tine recording equipment features Studio 1 Software