Two Wicklow Artists Named Recipients Of The Arts Council Next Generation Bursary.

They will each receive an award of an award of €25,000.

The Next Generation bursaries are awarded to promising emerging artists across all disciplines at an early but pivotal stage of their career. The award allows artists to buy time to develop their work and to be able to show their potential to advance and strengthen a distinctive and assured creative practice. The successful recipients have demonstrated in a compelling way how the award and the financial investment at this particular time will have a transformative effect in bringing them to the next stage of their artistic development. The Arts Council have awarded 20 bursaries to support their practice and their ambition as rising stars of the contemporary arts in Ireland. Each artist received an award of €25,000 and they are invited to participate in a collective week-long residency in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig in the spring of 2023.

Two Wicklow artists, Ali Clarke and Martha Breen, were recognised by the Arts Council and awarded the bursary. Their bios are as follows:

Ali Clarke is a choreographer working with dance and circus. Ali's work is characterised by her strong transdisciplinary approach and her passion for exploring the interface between public and performer. This award will allow Ali to explore immersive formats for performance. Currently, Ali is working on a dance and circus performance commissioned by The Courthouse Arts Centre for October 2022 and preparing for an immersive dance solo to premiere in The Mermaid Arts Centre in 2023.

Martha Breen is a performer, facilitator and theatremaker from Wicklow. She is graduate of the Lir Academy 2018. She has been Artistic Director of Mr. Sands Youth Theatre, Bray, since 2020. Her artistic aim is to make work that emulsifies text with movement as a tool for devising, but most importantly, for consensual, collaborative creativity. As a performer and deviser, she has worked with the Gate Theatre, Rough Magic, Peacock Theatre, Backstage Theatre, MALAPROP, Gúna Nua, National Theatre, and Fishamble Theatre Co. She is a founding member of Broad Strokes, and directed the Mermaid Arts Centre's Fighting Words 2021 and 2022.