WALKERS & BUSINESS TO ARTS ANNOUNCE KATE NOLAN AS WALKERS PHOTOGRAPHER-IN-RESIDENCE AT CBS WESTLAND ROW

Garry Ferguson, Managing Partner, Walkers; Kate Nolan, Walkers Photographer in Residence & Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive, Business to Arts with transition year students Casey Swaine & Yung Kien Chong of CBS Westland Row

Business to Arts and financial services law firm, Walkers, have today announced Irish photographer Kate Nolan as the Walkers Photographer-in-Residence under the Docklands Arts Fund. This new and unique residency sees Kate work with transition year students at CBS Westland Row and Walkers staff to develop their creativity and photographic skills.

Kate Nolan is an Irish visual artist based in Dublin. Drawn to “in-between” places, she is intrigued by the effects of shifting histories of areas in flux. Nolan collaborates with local communities over extended periods to give voice to these changes through the combination of their stories and her images. Through her work, she begins to highlight the latent contradictions and tenuous relationships between political borders and cultural identity. Nolan’s work has been featured in a wide range of photography publications and she has exhibited in solo and group shows in Ireland and internationally. Her work is held in public and private collections in Japan, USA, France, Portugal, Mexico, UK and Ireland.

Docklands Story Walks

The residency includes a series of workshops, where Kate will introduce documentary photography to CBS Westland Row transition year students through ‘story walks’ of the Docklands. These workshops will be led by the students themselves, who will select the locations to be photographed. Each week students will explore a different theme, visually strategising their stories through photographic walks of the Docklands. On these walks, students will learn new technical skills and aesthetic decisions. The images created will be brought back to the classroom to discuss and combine with text. The aims of these workshops are for students to learn photographic technical skills, how to read a photograph and then be able to tell their stories through imagery.

The exciting venture marks the first time that a business in Ireland has engaged a Photographer-in-Residence programme with Business to Arts and Dublin City Council. The residency supports Business to Arts’ wider programme of activity, which promotes the Arts collaboratively with businesses, artists, audiences and communities.

Kate Nolan, Photographer-in-Residence on accepting the residency has stated:

“This residency gives me the chance to work with young people in their local area, giving them an opportunity to express themselves photographically, while I get to learn about the Docklands through their eyes. Through this collaboration with Walkers and CBS Westland Row I very much look forward to them inspiring the way I look at and create work around the Docklands.”

Commenting on the announcement, Andrew Hetherington, Chief Executive of Business to Arts said:

“Kate Nolan is our first Walkers Photographer-in-Residence as part of the Docklands Arts Fund. This collaboration between Kate, the students of CBS Westland Row and Walkers staff will allow everyone involved to develop their photographic and creative skills, while documenting the Docklands area as it develops. We look forward to seeing how the students explore this unique area of the city and how they share their stories. The residency builds on projects funded across a variety of schools and organisations in the area through the Docklands Arts Fund”

Garry Ferguson, Managing Partner at Walkers said:

“We are thrilled that Kate has agreed to take on this project.  The Docklands is such a vibrant area of Dublin and it will be fascinating to see how Kate and the students of CBS Westland Row, through the novel idea of ‘story walks’, capture all aspects of life in the area.”