Technological University Dublin (TU) School of Creative Arts and Sherkin Island Development Society (SIDS) are delighted to announce that the all-island BA Visual Art Graduate Show 2022 takes place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 May.

Every second year since 2012, over the course of a single weekend, hundreds of people have visited Sherkin Island to experience the graduate exhibition of the BA Visual Art programme (BAVA), an innovative honours degree programme delivered on Sherkin Island. The programme is embedded within the island community and the graduating students are deeply engaged within this local context. Much of the work is concerned with the ecology, community and future sustainability of the island.

Engaging with Sherkin Island as both inspiration and installation space, this unique exhibition takes the form of an island-wide art-trail and offers visitors a fascinating insight into both the work of the graduating students, and the island itself. This is an opportunity to view a series of original and innovative contemporary artworks in one of the most scenic locations in the country.

Featuring the work of ten students – Maria Archer, Dianne Curtin, Terry Farnell, Fiona Hayes, Svetlana Majerova, Cath McCarter, Niamh Ní Chearbhaill, Ann O’Leary, Kevin Rooney and Robert Sobura – the exhibition will occupy a variety of interior and exterior locations throughout the island. The work ranges from painting, drawing and sculpture to photography, film, multi-media and digital work, from sound and projection to installation and site-specific work using the landscape, dwellings and other island buildings.

Ferries will be running regularly from the pier in Baltimore and, considering the popularity of this event on previous years, extra ferries will be operating. A special price deal will be in place for visitors to Thresholds for the weekend, with lunch specials and refreshments on offer at The Jolly Roger and Sherkin North Shore.

Following the exhibition on Sherkin Island, BA Visual Art graduating students will show their work at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen from 21 May to 15 June in an exhibition curated by Director Ann Davoren.

The eighth group to graduate, and this year’s ten graduating students will join the ranks of eighty-eight alumni of this prestigious and highly successful programme. Graduates have gone on to Masters and PhD level programmes, including the inaugural MA Art and Environment (TU School of Creative Arts); have secured work through teaching, lecturing and arts facilitation; and have developed careers as successful artists in west Cork and elsewhere.

BAVA continues to grow and develop with an invitation for applicants to this four-year modular honours degree, offering a dynamic and creative programme in contemporary visual art, fully accredited, managed and delivered by the Dublin School of Creative Arts at TU Dublin, open now for the 2022/2023 academic year.

For further information, contact TU Dublin Programme Coordinator, Glenn Loughran at glenn.loughran@tudublin.ie and Sherkin Island Development Secretary, Fiona Collins at sidssecretary@gmail.com

BA (hons) in Visual Art is a community-based, four year, honours degree, visual art programme based on Sherkin Island. It is fully accredited, managed and delivered by the Dublin School of Creative Arts, Technological University Dublin (TU) in partnership with Sherkin Island Development Society (SIDS) and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, and is part-funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Cork County Council.