A poet, a visual artist, an author and an inclusive theatre maker have been presented with Major Individual Artist Awards (MIAs) by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Poet, Padraig Regan, visual artist and painter, Pádraig Mac Cana, author, Bernie McGill and inclusive theatre maker and director, Andrew Stanford, will each receive a National Lottery funding award of up to £15,000 to create ambitious new work.

Each of the artists will now use the award to develop a series of new works. To hear the awardees speak about their proposed work, go to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland website.

Author Bernie McGill will use her award to create a new work of fiction inspired by Eleonora Duse, an Italian actress active around the 1890s – 1920s and rated by many as the greatest of her time. As part of the award, Bernie will spend time researching Duse at the Cini Foundationi and Museo Civico di Asolo in Italy. Watch the video here.

Poet Padraig Regan will use their award to begin work on a new poetry collection exploring geology. They are interested in how poetry and language can relate to the natural world, and how thinking about landscape on geological timescales may allow us to see the landscape as something that’s very much in process rather than a kind of static backdrop to our human lives. Video here.

Inclusive theatre maker and director Andrew Stanford will use his MIA award to create ‘Home in a Boat!’, an immersive sensory theatre adventure that’s all at sea. The project is being created for families across the country, serving the needs of children, young people, and adults who have complex needs and PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities) and will be a sensory theatre storytelling experience that participants can engage with from the comfort of their own homes. Video here.

Visual artist and painter Pádraig Mac Cana’s paintings are interchanges between external events, observations and his inner life of experiences and memories. Pádraig is currently undertaking an extended residency with The Florence Trust in London and will use the MIA award to research, develop and produce a new series of paintings that confront and reframe an aspect of the lingering historic trauma of the Northern Ireland Troubles. As part of the MIA award, he will undertake research at the British War Museum, The British library, The Imperial war Museum and on-site locations in London.

Director of Arts Development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Gilly Campbell, said, “Congratulations to all four artists in receiving a Major Individual Artist Award. These awards will enable these enormously talented artists to undertake a substantial piece of new work and reflects the Arts Council’s commitment to creating the conditions in which to grow artistic talent through experimentation and innovation. Thanks to money raised for good causes by the National Lottery players, these major awards will help to cement the national and international reputations of these artists, and strengthen the positive cultural profile of Northern Ireland, both at home and abroad.”

The four join a distinguished list of artists who have previously benefited from the Major Individual Artist award, including writers; Susan McKay, Moyra Donaldson, Carol Moore, Rosemary Jenkinson, Malachi O’Doherty, Jimmy McAleavey, Anne Devlin, Carlo Gébler, Damian Gorman, Patricia Craig, Sinéad Morrissey, Glenn Patterson, Owen McCafferty, Brian McGilloway and Shelley Tracey; playwright Shannon Sickles (Yee), performance artist, Sinéad O’Donnell, magician, Nikola Arkane, visual artists, Mairéad McClean, Rita Duffy, Susan MacWilliam, Cara Murphy and Gail Ritchie; composers, Deirdre Gribben, Ed Bennett, Piers Hellawell, Ian Wilson, Elaine Agnew, Conor Mitchell, Neil Martin and Deirdre McKay; musicians, Michael McHale, Ruth McGinley and David Lyttle plus choreographer, Oona Doherty, among others.

Major Individual Artist awards form part of the wider Support for the Individual Artist Programme (SIAP) which is supported with funding from The National Lottery and administered by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland annually.