The Moth Young Artists and Writers Bursary 

 

 

Cavan County Council Arts Office invited artists and writers under 30 to apply for a week-long residency at The Moth Retreat in conjunction with Becky O Connor and Will Govan, The Moth Magazine.

 

The Moth is home to the international art and literature magazine of the same name, and its junior counterpart The Caterpillar, as well as hosting several major literary and art prizes, including the €10,000 Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize.  This is the first year the local authority has worked with The Moth founders Becky O Connor and Will Govan to provide this opportunity for young talent to spend time in a dedicated arts environment associated with a literary and arts magazine.   The Moth magazine was described by the late Dermot Healy as “a literary gem”. The editors have created a retreat at their home in Milltown with a self contained studio and living space in a converted outhourse for artists to work in privacy in a rural Cavan townland.

 

The arts office works to support artists and to ensure that artists and arts organsiations in the county are assisted to remain here and contribute to a culturally rich county.

 

 

The first recipients of The Moth Young Artists and Writers Bursary 2017 are Inigo Purcell and Marie Farrington. 

 

 

Inigo Purcell

 

Inigo was born in London to Irish parents in 1989 and was writing in his early teens. He took a number of playwriting courses at the Royal Court Theatre Young Writer’s Programme, including producing a short scene which was featured in the Young Writer’s Festival ‘Best of the Rest’ Showcase in 2004. In 2009 he moved to Coventry and founded ‘Mixed Things Theatre’ a fringe theatre company which produced four new writing productions. He returned to education to complete his BA in English Literature at Oxford Brookes University.    His writing includes; short stories, poems, reviews and features.  During his stay in Cavan he will work on editing his first novel ‘A High Lonely Place’, a work of literary fiction inspired by the 14th century Arthurian Romance ‘Sir Gawain and The Green Knight’.

 

Marie Farrington

 

Marie Farrington born 1990 has studied in DIT (BA, 2013, first class honours) and NCAD (PDE, 2014; MA, 2016, first class honours). 

 

Her recent exhibitions include: These Circular Ruins, Maynooth University (solo), curated by Aoife Tunney; In good faith they waited for gravity (solo), RUA RED, South Dublin Arts Centre; Periodical Review #4, Pallas Projects/Studios, curated by Mary Conlon, Paul Hallahan, Gavin Murphy and Mark Cullen and The Producers, Dublin, curated by Vaari Claffey. 

 

Marie won many awards during her college experience including the 2014/15 Visual Culture Postgraduate Scholarship at NCAD, the 2013 DIT Student Academic Excellence Award and the Best Undergraduate Thesis (Fine Art). She completed a residency at IMMA in January 2013 as part of Basic Space Press, was selected by ELIA to represent Ireland in the 2013 NEU/NOW Festival and was recently awarded the RUA RED Graduate Award and Bursary (2015) and the Firestation Artist Studios’ Sculpture Workshop Award and Bursary (2015).   Marie is looking forward to her visit to The Moth studio and spending time on her work in rural county Cavan.

 

This opportunity is made possible by Cavan County Council arts office with the support of The Arts Council.