Below is the artist talk I gave at Watershed Studios in Galway, Ireland. The Maine Arts Commission sponsored this residency – an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Personally, I think the talk was good and I explained myself well, but I was really disappointed with the turnout. I promoted this a lot, and I hope the residency did, too. As it was, however, no one from the Galway arts community participated beyond the residency. I found this to be a consistent theme in Galway, that the residency did nothing to help promote my being there nor did it introduce me to people in the area. This is the first residency I’ve been to where the residency didn’t go out of it’s way to do this. All other residencies have done this, and that makes sense. It is to the residency’s benefit to introduce its residents to the community. Not only does this enhance the residency’s stature in the community, but it shows the residency is able to add to the arts scene as a whole. Why someone would not want to do this is beyond me. The more embedded a residency is, the healthier it is going to be. This should not have to be something an artist asks for. It shold be part of the business plan.
Still, it was productive. I’m OK working alone, so I got a lot of good work done. I just wish I could have networked better. With this talk, folks can now see more about my artistic process and development. Enjoy!