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Creative Places Tuam is delighted to launch The Match Factory, a residency supporting local artists Jojo Hynes and Midie Corcoran to evolve their own socially engaged practice alongside collaborating with young people to empower and celebrate their creative ideas in Tuam.
Continuing the work explored during the Artist Bursary and mentorship awarded to Jojo and Midie in 2020, The Match Factory is the landing space for the artists to bring 20 years of practice and expertise together. They will forge an exciting new process of engaging and collaborating with the Town of Tuam.
Midie and Jojo are Sparkcatchers and The Match Factory is the space in which their ideas can be ignited.
As part of their specific aims of this residency Jojo and Midie will collaborate with children and young people so they can express their opinions in a youth led project. Through exploration of the Town and local areas together they will work to reimagine public space as a venue for the Arts.
They will share this work and its development with the whole community, to continue to build relationships and create opportunities to see art happen locally.
This residency forms part of the Creative Places Tuam Cooperative Ignition Programme, an initiative which evolved out of the 2021 Commission open call.
About the artists
Sparkcatchers are Jojo and Midie who collaborate through a bold, meaningful, fun and intuitive practice that utilises positive disruption.
Jojo Hynes is a visual artist, performer, and collaborator based in Creevaghbawn. Her work explores themes of power, place, myths, identity and social justice issues. Jojo has collaborated with many different groups and artists, playing humorously with hierarchies, creating alternative networks, producing exhibitions as events and undertaking residencies across London, Ireland and the rest of Europe. Jojo is a graduate of Kingston University, Goldsmiths University, NCAD and GMIT.
Midie Corcoran is a Tuam based performer, director, writer, teller of stories and collaborative artist since 1985. He was the founding member and artistic director of Earwig! Arts; a Tuam community arts group. He is driven by street talking, social history and is creatively motivated by spontaneous fun. Midie maintains a punk ethos in his work breaking the barriers in accessing art and creativity. His interest lies in questioning the status quo through collaborative arts.
