Made Public
Catalyst Arts Library
17 May - 18 June 2022
Opens: Tuesday 17 May, 5-7pm
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Made Public is a project that explores Catalyst Arts’ library, bringing the resource to life through a number of events, workshops and readings. The project centres around the library as a space for encounter and collective conversation, as well as a space that reflects our yearly programme. For a full list of events, see below.
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Throughout the past few months our library has been displaced, moved from our previous premises at 5 College Court to 6 Joy’s Entry. This provided an opportunity to interact with the resource in a different way as books, pamphlets, zines and broadsheets were moved from shelves, and packed into boxes.
Whilst unpacking these boxes we discussed the ways in which the library could be used as a collective resource, and we decided to take this time to open up the Catalyst Arts library to the public by installing it in our main gallery and hosting a series of events. Through this we hope to explore the library as an open and inclusive resource, one that can be reflective of collective practices and bring people together through conversations.
The Catalyst Arts library is a unique entity (as all libraries are), collected almost haphazardly by past directors; it is a study in all the extraordinary thinking and research that has happened over the last 29 years, and in all of the artists who have exhibited, performed, curated and written for, Catalyst Arts. And the beautiful nature of libraries is that they contain multitudes, and we have found in this library books that reflect our own approaches and interests, from books exploring community, labour, materiality, poetry, the archive and architecture. We’ve encountered books we have read, and books we never knew existed, guided, as Ciaran Carson might have it, by the ‘library angel’.
With Made Public, we hope to expand the library, not just through adding more publications (by asking what and who is missing), but by allowing it to create new experiences and encounters. Reading as an act of transformation, interpretation and creation.
Event Programme:
hand-building (Propagate 2021)
29 May, 12-4pm
hand-building is a workshop with artist Ronan Smyth, with contributions by the Catalyst board, that was conceived through conversations surrounding the new Catalyst site, in particular our outdoor space. During the workshop, Ronan will guide you through the making of (water-resistant) clay pots.
hand-building also invites the public to create a communal, shared resource of seeds and propagated plants to be sowed within the clay pots.
We are inviting you to add to our seed library, to contribute your seeds, email catalystarts@gmail.com with details of your seed donation. This resource will be a reciprocal one, with seeds swapped through the year.
Booking not necessary to attend the workshop.
Discussion | OFFSITE
31 May (online) & 4 June (in person)
As part of Made Public, we are excited to be hosting two sessions of OFFSITE - a discussion series that creates space for Catalyst Arts members to share their practice, current research and ask questions in an informal and communal environment.
We are also delighted that June marks the first in person iteration of OFFSITE, with an online session taking place in May.
More information and booking for both sessions is available here: https://www.catalystarts.org.uk/opportunities-posts/offsite-members-opportunity-fjb3n
You must be a Catalyst Arts member to attend this session.
Workshop | Free the Catalyst Archive
2 June, 6 - 8pm
Taking inspiration from the book Arkive City, in particular the essay New Model Arkive by Victoria Worsley, we will be holding a workshop which maps the beginnings of Catalyst Arts. Free the Catalyst Archive aims to create discussions around how to make a living archive, and encourages the audience to encounter and discuss the resource at Catalyst Arts.
No booking necessary.
Publication Launch | Nollaig Molloy
4 June, 6 - 8pm
We are excited to be hosting the launch of Nollaig Molloy’s publication Retreat to Stone, Stone in Retreat as part of Made Public. Gorse flower wine refreshments will be served by Nollaig’s mam on occasion of the launch.
Retreat To Stone, Stone in Retreat (2021) is a book that contains personal texts which resonated with archeological and industrial sites in Nollaig’s locality. These places are inhabited by limestone outcrops, hawthorn trees and gorse bushes; the ever-present yet changing characteristics of the land. The texts present memories of exploring ringforts as a child, digital and real-time experiences of earth works and the material economy of limestone and gorse flower. Within the publication, these materials occur in the form of screen-printed limestone ink and flocked gorse petal fibres.
Printed with the support of a Development Residency at Belfast Print Workshop. The publication was created in parallel to Nollaig's solo exhibition, of the same title, as Catalyst Arts Graduate Awardee in 2020.
No booking necessary.
slow studies
11 June, 2pm - 4pm
slow studies is a collaborative reading, listening and watching group facilitated by curator Grace Jackson and Catalyst Arts.
slow studies utilises the Catalyst Arts library as a springboard to explore alternatives to outcome oriented structures within the arts organisation. As a group, we will interrogate practices such as categorisation and hyperproductivity, and will create a collective list of resources which lay the foundation for an inclusive, accessible and honest arts space.
Varied resources will be shared with those who sign up via our Eventbrite in advance of the session. This will include texts, audio work and open-source viewing links.
Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slow-studies-tickets-342432674347
Catalyst Arts Salon
18 June, doors at 8.30pm for 9pm start
An evening of readings. BYOB.
We are excited to be holding an evening of readings, which features Niamh Seana Meehan, a visual artist based in Northern Ireland, and author Susannah Dickey.
The evening will also be open to readings from the audience.
Photo: Courtesy of Niamh Seana Meehan. Photo by Kathryn Leyburn.
