glór this week announced Ciara Miesle and Rowan Watson Bradshaw as the two young people who will join the NASC Network Young Curators’ programme for 2023/24.
glór and its partner venues in the Nasc Regional Venue Network have teamed up to present a national festival in June 2024 across eight regional theatres – from Letterkenny to Tralee, from Ennis to Dun Laoghaire – programmed by the team of young people selected through a nationwide open call.
Throughout the year, the Young Curators will have the opportunity to meet up with curators from other venues across the NASC Network. They will each receive mentoring from industry professionals in marketing, touring and venue management and will learn about negotiating deals, how to approach artists and companies, and how to manage budgets. They are also this week visiting the Galway International Arts Festival to experience excellent arts programming in the flesh. In Spring 2024, the Young Curators will work towards programming events for a week-long festival which will take place between 3rd and 8th of June 2024.
Half-Irish, half-American, Ciara Miesle is a Clare local currently undergoing a Bachelor of Arts degree with Art History at University College Cork. She has an interest in all things arts related, from classical literature to Avant Garde video games. Ciara is a talented writer, having been published in the 2022 Fighting Words supplement and she was also awarded the 2021 Edna O’Brien Young Writers’ Bursary. Other hobbies include visual art and game development. Ciara is thrilled to be provided with this opportunity by glór and the NASC Network and looks forward to the year ahead.
Rowan Watson Bradshaw has been involved with numerous arts organisations and festivals over the years. She has a strong passion for theatre, performance, and the written word and for the last six years she has been a member of Clare Youth Theatre, a position that led to experience in all areas of theatre production including script writing; costume; lighting and acting. Rowan has adapted and co-directed a collection of fairytales for the stage, and she also acted in this production both in Clare and internationally in the Intertwined Festival in Germany. She is a talented singer and has sung in choirs and singing groups and performed in the 1916 rising centenary 100 Years a Nation performance.
Rowan has volunteered for a number of years with Clare Youth Action, a youth group devoted to social change and community improvement and has been involved in projects to spread information about domestic abuse, mental health, and period poverty.
The Young Curators Programme, based on a project originally conceived and delivered by Backstage Theatre, Longford in 2020, is targeted at young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who want to gain experience in working in the arts, especially those interested in venue and festival management and programming.
The curators were selected on the basis that they are from, live in or have a strong connection to Co. Clare and its communities; have a passion for the arts and for attending performance; enjoy working with a small team; like organising events and making things happen; and are able to make the commitment to the programme if selected.
The Young Curators’ Programme is about programming and producing creative work in the performing and visual arts – selecting shows that they may have seen for glór’s programme of events or making a show in collaboration with young curators in other venues. Curating will include managing the event from the first conversation with the artists right to the completion of the performance. In this, the young programmers will be supported by the team here at glór, the young curators at the other participating venues, and the professionals hired to support the programme including project co-ordinator Maisie Lee.
Established in 2006, the Nasc Network is a partnership of eight venues who work together to present touring projects and share marketing and other areas of expertise. The Nasc Network Venues are An Grianán Theatre (Letterkenny), Backstage (Longford), Dunamaise (Port Laoise), Glór (Ennis), The Lime Tree (Limerick), The Pavilion (Dun Laoghaire), Siamsa Tíre (Tralee) and Town Hall Theatre.
