Encounter Fest! launches online at 5pm on Thursday 17 October with artist Aileen Murphy sharing Celestial Mechanics, an intensive art and science project and exhibition which took place over 4 days. Taking inspiration from the work at DIAS Dunsink Observatory, the children of 5th class from St. Philip’s SNS were
asked to think about the sky, what is in it and use their ideas to create large paintings. Themes and ideas in their paintings include space, the stars, the sun and the moon, as well as imagined characters that might reside in the sky. The children’s paintings inspired by themes of astronomy were on display at Dunsink
Observatory for Cruinniú na nÓg, the National Day of Creativity for children and young people. The project was curated by Superprojects in celebration of Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 and supported by Fingal County Council and DIAS Dunsink.

Encounter Fest! continues Friday 18 October with an in-person event hosted by The National Concert Hall. Artist Dr. Alice Rekab will kick off the event discussing FAMILY LINES. This multi-platform art project explores experiences of migration and survival within the family unit, focusing on Black and Mixed-Race life in Ireland across generations. The project was commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery and exhibited from 1 July to 25 September 2022.

The morning continues with Bia!Zine by the Igbo-Irish freelance writer, zine-maker, content designer, and Global Health researcher Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma. Bia! Zine is an independently published physical representation of the voices, food, stories, and histories of immigrant communities in Ireland. Meaning ’food’ in Irish and ‘come’ in Igbo, Bia! is about documenting the commonality between immigrants and diasporas, counterbalancing mainstream food narratives, and celebrating how immigrants and diasporas assert their presence in Ireland through food.

Dr. Anthony Haughey presents his work in the afternoon where he will reflect on his engagement with cultural institutions as sites of social transformation, working with young people from across Ireland to explore how we understand and embrace emerging cultural identities, and reimaging a future Ireland
through Young People’s Assemblies. The day concludes with The Microforest by artist Gareth Kennedy. The Microforest is a 5 year-long art & ecology project aimed at developing a micro forest as a space for outdoor learning and art making, providing a meaningful encounter with nature and learning about environmental sustainability and its impact on climate change. The Microforest is commissioned by Superprojects in partnership with Fingal County Council and Blakestown Community School.

Dr. Alice Rekab is a visual artist based in Dublin. Their practice is concerned with expressions and iterations of complex cultural and personal narratives. They take their own mixed-race Irish identity as a starting point from which to explore the idea of the body, the family and the nation as reflections of one another. They develop these ideas through material investigations and renditions of family, its bodies, and the spaces they move through and inhabit. Through a practice of film, performance, image and sculpture, they create new intersectional narratives and objects for exhibition. Recent projects include Ricochet #14 Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2021) Two External Light Sources At The Same Time TBG+S(2019) The Nomoli/Father talk VERY Project Space, Berlin (2019) and The Open Object Stanley Picker Gallery, London(2018).

Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma is an Igbo-Irish writer, artist, content designer and researcher whose practice is engaged with zine-making, independent publishing and creative placemaking. Named as one of seven people shaping creativity in Ireland by District Magazine and one to watch by the Irish Times, Hot Press and the Irish Independent, Victory is a multi-faceted storyteller and change-maker. Victory has written for several mainstream and independent artist-led publications and led workshops on zine-making and independent publishing. In past years, Victory co-founded and edited Spilt Milk Mag, a Glasgow-based arts and literary magazine. More recently, she is producing Bia! Zine – a storytelling project centered on immigration, food and culture.

Dr. Anthony Haughey lectures on the BA Photography and is a PhD supervisor in the Centre for Socially Engaged Practice-Based Research (SEPR), a research centre within the School of Media. In addition to teaching, Anthony is a socially engaged artist, photographer and filmmaker whose artworks have been
exhibited, collected, and published nationally and internationally. Anthony was a Senior Research Fellow (2005-8) at the Interface Centre for Research in Art, Technologies and Design in Belfast School of Art, where he completed a PhD in 2009. He is a member of the editorial board for the Routledge Journal, ‘Photographies’ and is chairperson of Fire Station Artist Studios. Anthony recently completed his term as Decade of Centenaries Artist-In-Residence at the National Museum of Ireland.

Gareth Kennedy‘s work explores the social agency of the handcrafted in the 21st century and generates ‘communities of interest’ around the production and performance of new material cultures. Deploying an anthropological approach as an operational aesthetic these works draw on the particular social, cultural and economic histories of location. Outcomes typically include architectural or designed structures, hand crafted objects, as well as live performative events which bring these physical entities to life within specific public contexts. Kennedy has produced and shown work both nationally and internationally. His practice to date includes public artwork, educational projects, exhibitions, residencies and collaborations. In 2009, he co-represented Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale along with artist Sarah Browne. Kennedy also works on another distinct artistic practice called Kennedy Browne in collaboration with artist Sarah Browne.

Traveller Poet Elizabeth Connors is a recipient of a National Traveller Pride award and has been widely broadcast and regularly takes part in literary events and national days such as National Traveller Mental Health Day and International Women’s Day. As a member of the Carlow Traveller Forum, she is very involved in working with her local community. The Carlow Traveller Forum identifies themes and issues impacting the community and explores what strategic opportunities can be created to improve or resolve ongoing challenges regarding housing, education, employment, cost of living, discrimination or any other overarching themes impacting the Travelling community across the county.

Aileen Murphy makes paintings that convey corporeal sensory intensities and psychological intention through scale, color, gesture, humor, abstraction and imagination. In her paintings, feelings are body driven. Murphy (b.1984, Co. Sligo, Ireland) currently lives and works in Berlin and studied in Städelschule, Frankfurt am main (2018), and at NCAD, Dublin (2007). Murphy has been included at exhibitions at Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; Deborah Schamoni, Munich; Amanda Wilkinson, London; Pelaries, Palma; The Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; Kunstverein Düsseldorf, and 321 Gallery, New York. Murphy completed the Artist Studio Residency at ISCP in New York in 2023. Murphy’s work is held in several collections, including The Arts Council of Ireland, SIA Zuzeum, Latvia and Xiao Hui Wang Museum of Contemporary Art, China.