The Library Project
In Temple Bar, the heart of Dublin’s city center, you can find The Library Project, run by PhotoIreland Foundation since 2013. This exciting space combining a library, bookshop, and gallery, is somewhere we always recommend to our residency artists, especially those with a primary interest in lens-based media. We regularly pop in for a visit with students from our summer program, Art on the Farm, and our gap year program Fieldworks. PhotoIreland founder and CEO Ángel Luis González and General Manager Julia Geletzova are always welcoming and happy to take some time to talk about their numerous projects.
The library itself boasts an impressive collection of over 1000 photobooks and magazines, while the bookshop is full of exciting publications by local and international contemporary visual artists. The gallery space is dedicated to exhibiting the work of emerging and mid-career lens-based visual artists. Many of our students have a keen interest in Photography, and the exhibitions here have proven to be a useful catalyst for intriguing conversations. Along with Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, The Gallery of Photography and Project Arts Centre, The Library Project has helped to make Temple Bar one of the most vibrant cultural hubs of the city.
The Library Project is an excellent resource for local photographers. The library upstairs is frequently populated by people conducting research or meeting about projects in the works. Openings for exhibitions and book launches always draw a crowd and regularly spill into the streets.
MAP EMBED BLOCK
Some notable shows have included Phototropism, which included the work of 11 contemporary photographers. And, alongside their work, an ever-growing botanical display. To this day, the shop still offers houseplants for sale. Halftone, their annual print fair, fills the gallery walls from floor to ceiling. The exhibition space feels like its bursting with new and exciting artworks. People of the Mud was a stunning exhibition by Luis Alberto Rodriguez, who shot the work entierly in County Wexford, where he was on residency with us for six weeks as part of Futures, 2018.
This collaboration is exemplary of Cow House Studios’ incredibly productive relationship with PhotoIreland Foundation. In 2016 we worked together for the first time to offer How to Flatten a Mountain a residency and exhibition opportunity for visual artists who, in whole or part, make use of photographic processes. The work produced during this residency is exhibited as part of the PhotoIreland Festival. We are thrilled to be offering How to Flatten a Mountain again for 2020. Application information and dates will be announced very soon. Earlier this year, The Library Project hosted an exhibition by students from UNC Greensborough, who were working for two weeks down at Cow House to produce the work for the show After the Landscape. Finally, we are excited to be co-hosting European and North American members of the Piece of Cake Collective for a residency and book exhibition in June 2020.
If you find yourself in Dublin be sure to pop in for a visit. You may find yourself lost in the books for hours, struggling with the decision of which ones you want to take home.
