Residencies
Artists’ residencies form a central part of the creative programme at Airfield. These have been supported through our partnership with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Arts Office and range across many disciplines from sculpture to print and photography to literature. Artists draw on and respond to both the surrounding environment and the extensive Overend family archive. Their presence enriches and animates the site and provides many new insights into the familiar. Just two example of two of our most recent residencies:

Artist Jennie Moran went looking in our archive for romance and found it in the love letters exchanged by Lily and Trevor. She held a season of film nights in various locations around the estate and wined and dined her audience on food she had gathered from the farm and Victorian

cocktails she concocted from now exotic ingredients. She created a set of prints documenting her journey between her home and her studio in Airfield Our summer hut on the front lawn became ‘A Space That Gives You The Possibility To Think Something Else’ where the visitor could lie down to rest, to think or to imagine on a soft bed of our sheep’s wool washed and carded by the artist herself.

Drawing on the legacy of the Overend sisters, Artist in Residence Niamh White investigated the idea of maternal legacy & the passing on and bequeathing to future generations. Her work usually revolves around a place, material or mode of communication, often subverting the traditional function of objects and situations to create meaning. Ideas of nurturing, dependence and maintenance of relationships are recurring themes, as well as a strong connection to physical environment and living history. As part of this work she called for participants to join her weekly stitching club. Participants worked on group pieces, including a cross-stitch map of Airfield, and personal samplers to pass on to the next generation.

Exhibitions
The house that once was home to the Overend family has hosted numerous exhibitions over the

years. by Print - makers; Painters; Illustrators; Painters and photographers has provided a changing, engaging and sometimes stimulating backdrop for diners in the café as they relax and soak in the atmosphere. Airfield has provided and important forum in which artists, both professional and amateur can showcase their work.

Schools

In this City

Airfield provides the perfect environment to explore the links between the natural and the man-made. Ceramic Artist Kira O’Brien worked with school groups to explore these links and the concept of perspective by introducing the premise of a mouse in the city. Airfield staff led children through the grounds searching high up and low down for clues, both visual and aural, indicating whether this was a natural or man-made environment. Working with the artist, each child made a clay mouse that became part of an installation which by using projections reinforced notions of perspective.
The house that once was home to the Overend family has hosted numerous exhibitions over the years. The work exhibited by Print-makers; Painters; Illustrators; Painters and photographers has provided a changing, engaging and sometimes stimulating backdrop for diners in the café as they relax and soak in the atmosphere. Airfield has provided and important forum in which artists, both professional and amateur can showcase their work.

Student Programme

For the past two years, second year students from the Sculpture Department in NCAD decamped to Airfield for a week in their final term. Living and sleeping on the grounds, they obtained a very different perspective from most people, which allowed them to create site- specific work responding to Airfield, the place and the story in a variety of exciting and inspiring ways. Their presence brought life and energy to the estate surprising and delighting visitors and staff alike.

Concerts

The room built by Trevor Overend as his library, with its wonderful acoustic, provides the perfect space for intimate concerts. This room has played host to well-known performers as well as new discoveries. The sell-out programme includes a wide range of genres from traditional and folk to flamenco and jazz.

Culture Night

Culture night is a big event at Airfield with the whole estate being animated. There are candle light tours of the walled garden and the farm and music, exhibitions and films from the archive in the house. This year artist-in residence, Niamh White and her sewing group showed the work they had created over the previous months and taught people how to embroider and sew all night long. One of last year’s highlights was the showing of ‘Farm film’ the work created by Film maker Katie Lincoln and her group of young artists from Belvedere Youth Club in Buckingham Street. This residency was funded by The Arts Council through Create’s ‘Artist in the community’ scheme. FARMFILM