News

Winner of the Noone Casey Mentorship Award

Dublin Contemporary 2011 and Noone Casey are delighted to announce the winner of the Noone Casey Mentorship Award, worth over €10,000, as Block T. 

The competition, which was set up to offer artists a year’s worth of bespoke business mentoring, was open to young artist collectives, emerging gallery spaces or start-up arts organisations across Ireland. The judging panel, which consisted of Anthony Casey, Partner, Noone Casey, Louise O’Reilly, Sponsorship and Development Manager for Dublin Contemporary, Aideen Darcy, Curatorial Manager for Dublin Contemporary, and Kieran Kennedy, independant Musician and Producer, chose the winner after presentations from three shortlisted entries, which included Mondrian’s Room and PrettyvacanT, from over a dozen applicants.

Block T is based in Smithfield since 2010 and is a multi-disciplinary space featuring artist studios and gallery, and facilitating performances, exhibitions, talks, international exchanges, training, and internship programmes, while remaining committed to enriching daily life in Smithfield.

[BACK, L-R]
Dublin Contemporary Sponsorship & Development Manager and Award panel judge Louise O’Reilly; Musician and Award panel judge Kieran Kennedy; Block T’s Managing Director Laura G Down and Art Coordinator Grace Mc Evoy; Dublin Contemporary Curatorial Manager and Award panel judge Aideen D’Arcy; Noone Casey Managing Partner and Award panel judge Anthony Casey
[FRONT L-R]
Block T’s Artistic Director Ben Readman, Operations Director Joe Salam and Building and Maintenance Manager Nick Linders

The Noone Casey Mentorship Award will provide Block T with the opportunity to benefit from key tax, accounting and business affairs advice for one year, valued at over €10,000. The sessions will follow a strategic planning process to empower Block T and develop a five-year plan for growth of their arts-based business.  Commenting on the announcement, Noone Casey partner Anthony Casey said, ‘Noone Casey is delighted to be involved with a seminal event such as Dublin Contemporary 2011. We want to invest in the future sustainability of the art community in Ireland by mentoring a new wave of creative entrepreneurs and what better way to do this than to offer Block T this mentorship programme. We were most impressed by the number, scale and quality of exhibitions and performances Block T have developed in the past year. Block T represent the best of a new breed of proactive arts organisations in Ireland and we wish them the best of luck with the Mentorship scheme.’

Adding to this, Louise O’Reilly from Dublin Contemporary 2011, said, ‘While Dublin Contemporary was delighted to receive strong applications from a wide variety of cultural and artistic endeavours across the country, Block T represented the kind of civic response at a grassroots level that was important for Dublin Contemporary to support as a legacy of this, the first edition. The contribution of Block T, and similar organisations, to the country’s cultural, intellectual and social growth should be viewed not merely as a revitalisation against a recessionary backdrop, but also as creative enterprise and employer to be sustained and supported in the long term.’

On behalf of the winners, Grace McEvoy, Block T Visual Arts Coordinator / Curator said ‘We are honoured to receive this award from Noone Casey. We are excited about the experience that this award will offer and it will allow BLOCK T to achieve its long term vision. This type of support is integral to contemporary Irish art and culture and it is great to see Dublin Contemporary playing a vital role in fostering creative enterprises today.’

Noone Casey have generously offered some complimentary steering sessions to the two runners-up, so impressed were they with their projects as well. 

Noone Casey has been providing commercial, financial and taxation advice to some of Ireland’s fastest growing companies since 1992. A client-focused professional accountancy practice, Noone Casey has a particular interest in supporting the arts. In 2009 the company sponsored and facilitated the Twelve Doors project at its Dame Street premises. An antidote to the relentless recession gloom, Noone Casey took an artistic risk by offering the front door of its offices to twelve street artists to “use, abuse, deface and delight over twelve months”.  Now Noone Casey has again stepped up to support the vibrancy and dynamism of the cultural landscape with a mentorship programme.

http://www.noonecasey.ie/