Director
Administrator / Artists’ Liaison
Curator & Producer
A/Technical Manager
Technical Assistant
Director
A graduate of History of Art and Architecture from TCD, with a postgraduate in Heritage Management from UCC, Valerie has worked in a range of arts organisations over the past 20 years: Director of Cork Printmakers, one of Ireland’s leading Print Studios; Project Manager for visual arts projects, European Capital of Culture: Cork 2005; Arts Coordinator to St James’s Hospital, Dublin; and Visual Arts Programmer for Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. Valerie has extensive experience initiating national and international projects and is responsible for guiding the creative direction of the NSF, strategic planning, policy development and maintaining partnerships and collaborations to ensure the continued growth of the organisation.
Administrator / Artists’ Liaison
Elma has an experienced background in administration and has a Diploma in Computer and Secretarial Studies. Elma has coordinated and managed a number of Percent for Art Schemes for both the private and public sectors, and in her role liaises with the NSF Board, artists and external agencies, including Governmental departments. A number of years ago, Elma was also appointed artists’ liaison at the NSF, where she assists artists’ with non-technical issues.
Curator & Producer
Dobz O’Brien is curator and producer at the NSF. He is also an artist and independent curator and the founding member of art group Art/ not art. Focused on the commissioning of off-site artworks he has curated and produced a wide range of projects across a broad spectrum of mediums, sites and locations. As NSF Programme Manager he has worked with international artists SuperFlex; Phil Collins; Maddie Leach; Bikvanderpol; Surasi Kusolwong; as well as Irish artists; Doireann O’Malley, Jesse Presley Jones, Anthony Haughey, Elaine Hoey. He was a co-curator of the Cork Caucus in 2005 with Charles Esche, Annie Fletcher and Fergal Gaynor. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally. At Via Farini, Milan and at “Big Social Game” Torino Biennale in Italy; Rraum02 and Gasthof in Frankfurt as part of Manifesta 4 and all across Ireland.
A/Technical Manager
Dominic is a visual artist, exhibition maker and educator. His artworks which comprise printmaking, mixed-media sculpture, moving image and site-specific installation have been exhibited in Ireland and internationally. As a printmaker Dominic has an extensive history of professional mentoring and editioning of prints for publication in all major disciplines, and from 1999 – 2007 was the studio manager in Cork Printmakers, one of Ireland’s leading printmaking facilities. As an educator Dominic has substantial experience working as a part-time lecturer up to graduate level in several art colleges including MTU Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.
Technical Assistant
John has lived and worked in America, Germany and Mexico. He studied sculpture and graphic design at Palomar College in California and went on to do several apprenticeships including fabrication applied to furniture manufacturing and sculpture, glassblowing for neon signs, carpentry, electrics and precision engineering. He returned to college after moving to Ireland to study cabinetmaking and furniture restoration. John has worked in many fields and when he’s not at the NSF he works as an installation technician for several artists, galleries and museums nationally and internationally and from his studio in Shandon, Cork. The largest project he worked on to-date was the restoration of Sauerburg Castle, a world heritage site in Germany. His work resides in international collections.
Digital Comms Officer
Project Assistant
Digital Comms Officer
Stephanie has a background in both fine art and graphic design. As a resident artist in Camden Palace Hotel she began volunteering in the office; helping organize exhibitions and run events in the building over the course of five years. She joined Cork Community Art Link in 2018 as an administrator, assisting with a variety of events including The Dragon of Shandon Parade, the St Patrick’s Day Parade, Sea Change Participatory Arts Conference and the Rebel Streets Urban Art Festival. While in charge of digital marketing for CCAL she was responsible for developing and growing the centre’s online presence.
Project Assistant
Claire graduated from her Bachelors degree in Fine art Painting at the National College of Art and Design in 2009. In 2015 she studied cinematography in BCFE specialising in 16mm film and film photography. She continued with her studies in cinematography at Napier University Edinburgh where she received her Masters in 2018. Since completing her masters Claire has worked on a number of short films. During this time she has had an active analogue photography practice which also feeds into her film making work. She is currently based in Cork and is a member of the Backwater artist studio darkroom.
Elected 2014 to date
Sarah Moran BA MRUP MIPI graduated from University College Cork in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts and qualified as a town planner at University College Dublin in 2000. She has worked for An Bord Pleanála since 2006 and is now a Senior Planning Inspector. Prior to her time at the Board, she worked as a planner with Cork City Council, Cork County Council and Dublin City Council. Sarah works with the Cork branch of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) and the IPI National Council to forward the Institute’s mission to advance planning by serving, improving and promoting the planning profession for the benefit of the community and the common good. Sarah is also chairperson of the NSF.
Elected 2015 to date
Niall Smith has a lifelong interest in understanding the universe we live in. He received a PhD in astrophysics from UCD in 1990 and along with others established the science and visitor centre at Blackrock Castle Observatory (www.bco.ie) in Cork in 2007 in a partnership between Cork Institute of Technology and Cork City Council. The centre celebrates the full spectrum of human inquiry from the perspectives of science, art, humanities and performance, and is made possible by the innovation, creativity and hard work of a small and highly dedicated team. In 2017 Niall was the Local Lead for the International Space University Space Studies Programme which was the largest space conference held in Ireland to date. He is also the Head of Research at Munster Technological University, a job which affords him the opportunity to work across discipline boundaries. Niall remains an active researcher and was awarded Science Foundation Ireland’s Research Image of the Year Award in 2020 for work that examined the efficacy of masks using techniques borrowed from astrophysics.
Elected November 2020 to date
Ian is an Associate Partner with the professional services firm, EY, and is part of the Assurance team in the EY Cork office. He is a qualified accountant and is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland with over twenty years’ experience working with EY, with a number of years spent in Dublin. With a finance and business background, he works with a wide portfolio of both global and local clients, across a variety of industry sectors. He is based and living in Cork.
Elected 2009 to date
Dr. Kieran McCarthy is an elected member of Cork City Council and is an Irish delegate member of the European Committee of the Regions (COR). For the past twenty years, Kieran has written a weekly heritage column in the Cork Independent ‘Our City Our Town’ which has addressed the local history of Cork City and its surrounding region. He has also written 27 books dedicated to Cork. Kieran’s historical walking tours of the city focus on the landscapes and memories within 25 neighbourhoods, which one can read about on his dedicated Cork heritage website www.corkheritage.ie. Kieran’s Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project, was founded by Kieran in 2003 and is now annually implemented in 25 schools in Cork City with 1,200 students annually participating. Kieran holds a PhD in Geography from University College Cork and has interests in ideas of landscape, collective memory, heritage construction, narrative and identity structures.
Elected November 2020 to date
Ailbhe is an artist working with film and installation. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art in London and was awarded a PhD by practice from Kingston University, UK. Her work has shown widely internationally, with exhibitions at RHA, Dublin; Broad Museum, Michigan; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Paris Photo; and Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid among others. Ní Bhriain is represented by Domobaal Gallery, London. Public collections of her work include Trinity College, Dublin, OPW, and The Arts Council of Ireland. Originally from Co. Clare, she is now based in Cork
Elected 2012 to date
Aideen Barry (ARHA) is a practising visual artist based in Ireland, but with an international profile. Barry is a member of Aosdána, and lectures in several universities and schools of visual art in Ireland, the United States, and around the world. Selected projects include exhibitions at The American Film Makers' Co-op NYC (US), NYU, The Katzen Centre (US), Elephant West (UK), Mother's Tankstation (IE), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Oaxaca (MX), Louise T. Blouin (London), Wexner Center (US), Moderne Mussett (SE), Liste Art Fair (CH), BAC Geneva (CH), Loop Biennale (ES), and Matucana 100 (CL). She is currently making a feature film Klostės commissioned by Kaunas 2022, and is working on a multidisciplinary collaborative work ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ /OBLIVION/SEACHMALLTACHT for the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Music Network and the Bunting Archives. Recent awards and honours include the Anderson Lectureship at Penn State University, The Myron Marty Fellowship at Drake (Iowa), Project Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks. Her works are in Collections at Trinity College Dublin, CAC Malága, Art OMI (New York),The Glucksman & UCC Collection, The Arts Council Collection and the National Collection at Crawford Art Gallery. In 2010, she was shortlisted for the prestigious AIB Prize, and in 2021 she won the Golden Fleece Award and the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Prize. Barry is originally from Mayfield in Cork but is based between Tipperary, Lithuania and the States.
Elected 2019 to date
Lorna Bogue is a Cork City Councillor for the Cork City South East ward and a member of An Rabharta Glas - Green Left. Originally from Limerick, Lorna holds a bachelors degree in Irish, Music and Dance from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and a Masters in Economic Analysis. Lorna’s primary interests lie in exploring practices of building Counter-Hegemony, Community Wealth-building, Just Transition approaches to Climate Crisis, Eco-Feminism, and the Urban Commons.
Elected January 2021 to date
Marilyn is a visual artist and lecturer who works predominantly through durational social art practice. Since 2021 she is a Lecturer at Crawford College of Art and Design. She previously developed and co-directed a Master's in Social Art Practice (MA SPACE) at Limerick School of Art and Design. She has a PhD from University of Limerick and in 2021 she completed a continuing professional development course, Commissioning and Curating Contemporary Public Art by Valand Academy at the University of Gothenburg. She is a founding member of CONJUNCTION – a globally dispersed collective of 25 mid-career and established curators, artists, designers, educators, and public art practitioners. Link to website.
Elected 2014 to date
Sarah Moran BA MRUP MIPI graduated from University College Cork in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts and qualified as a town planner at University College Dublin in 2000. She has worked for An Bord Pleanála since 2006 and is now a Senior Planning Inspector. Prior to her time at the Board, she worked as a planner with Cork City Council, Cork County Council and Dublin City Council. Sarah works with the Cork branch of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) and the IPI National Council to forward the Institute’s mission to advance planning by serving, improving and promoting the planning profession for the benefit of the community and the common good. Sarah is also chairperson of the NSF.
Elected 2015 to date
Niall Smith has a lifelong interest in understanding the universe we live in. He received a PhD in astrophysics from UCD in 1990 and along with others established the science and visitor centre at Blackrock Castle Observatory (www.bco.ie) in Cork in 2007 in a partnership between Cork Institute of Technology and Cork City Council. The centre celebrates the full spectrum of human inquiry from the perspectives of science, art, humanities and performance, and is made possible by the innovation, creativity and hard work of a small and highly dedicated team. In 2017 Niall was the Local Lead for the International Space University Space Studies Programme which was the largest space conference held in Ireland to date. He is also the Head of Research at Munster Technological University, a job which affords him the opportunity to work across discipline boundaries. Niall remains an active researcher and was awarded Science Foundation Ireland’s Research Image of the Year Award in 2020 for work that examined the efficacy of masks using techniques borrowed from astrophysics.
Elected November 2020 to date
Ian is an Associate Partner with the professional services firm, EY, and is part of the Assurance team in the EY Cork office. He is a qualified accountant and is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland with over twenty years’ experience working with EY, with a number of years spent in Dublin. With a finance and business background, he works with a wide portfolio of both global and local clients, across a variety of industry sectors. He is based and living in Cork.
Elected 2009 to date
Dr. Kieran McCarthy is an elected member of Cork City Council and is an Irish delegate member of the European Committee of the Regions (COR). For the past twenty years, Kieran has written a weekly heritage column in the Cork Independent ‘Our City Our Town’ which has addressed the local history of Cork City and its surrounding region. He has also written 27 books dedicated to Cork. Kieran’s historical walking tours of the city focus on the landscapes and memories within 25 neighbourhoods, which one can read about on his dedicated Cork heritage website www.corkheritage.ie. Kieran’s Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project, was founded by Kieran in 2003 and is now annually implemented in 25 schools in Cork City with 1,200 students annually participating. Kieran holds a PhD in Geography from University College Cork and has interests in ideas of landscape, collective memory, heritage construction, narrative and identity structures.
Elected November 2020 to date
Ailbhe is an artist working with film and installation. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art in London and was awarded a PhD by practice from Kingston University, UK. Her work has shown widely internationally, with exhibitions at RHA, Dublin; Broad Museum, Michigan; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Paris Photo; and Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid among others. Ní Bhriain is represented by Domobaal Gallery, London. Public collections of her work include Trinity College, Dublin, OPW, and The Arts Council of Ireland. Originally from Co. Clare, she is now based in Cork
Elected 2012 to date
Aideen Barry (ARHA) is a practising visual artist based in Ireland, but with an international profile. Barry is a member of Aosdána, and lectures in several universities and schools of visual art in Ireland, the United States, and around the world. Selected projects include exhibitions at The American Film Makers' Co-op NYC (US), NYU, The Katzen Centre (US), Elephant West (UK), Mother's Tankstation (IE), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Oaxaca (MX), Louise T. Blouin (London), Wexner Center (US), Moderne Mussett (SE), Liste Art Fair (CH), BAC Geneva (CH), Loop Biennale (ES), and Matucana 100 (CL). She is currently making a feature film Klostės commissioned by Kaunas 2022, and is working on a multidisciplinary collaborative work ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ /OBLIVION/SEACHMALLTACHT for the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Music Network and the Bunting Archives. Recent awards and honours include the Anderson Lectureship at Penn State University, The Myron Marty Fellowship at Drake (Iowa), Project Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks. Her works are in Collections at Trinity College Dublin, CAC Malága, Art OMI (New York),The Glucksman & UCC Collection, The Arts Council Collection and the National Collection at Crawford Art Gallery. In 2010, she was shortlisted for the prestigious AIB Prize, and in 2021 she won the Golden Fleece Award and the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Prize. Barry is originally from Mayfield in Cork but is based between Tipperary, Lithuania and the States.
Elected 2019 to date
Lorna Bogue is a Cork City Councillor for the Cork City South East ward and a member of An Rabharta Glas - Green Left. Originally from Limerick, Lorna holds a bachelors degree in Irish, Music and Dance from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and a Masters in Economic Analysis. Lorna’s primary interests lie in exploring practices of building Counter-Hegemony, Community Wealth-building, Just Transition approaches to Climate Crisis, Eco-Feminism, and the Urban Commons.
Elected January 2021 to date
Marilyn is a visual artist and lecturer who works predominantly through durational social art practice. Since 2021 she is a Lecturer at Crawford College of Art and Design. She previously developed and co-directed a Master's in Social Art Practice (MA SPACE) at Limerick School of Art and Design. She has a PhD from University of Limerick and in 2021 she completed a continuing professional development course, Commissioning and Curating Contemporary Public Art by Valand Academy at the University of Gothenburg. She is a founding member of CONJUNCTION – a globally dispersed collective of 25 mid-career and established curators, artists, designers, educators, and public art practitioners. Link to website.
