CREATIVE FUTURES ACADEMY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Administrator
- Senior Administrator, UCD
Bio
Amy is the Senior Administrator for the Creative Futures Academy in UCD. She is a graduate of the UCD School of English, Drama and Film where she studied a BA in English with Drama, and an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture. She has also completed further study in the field of Sexuality and Sexual Health Education.
Her role with the Creative Futures Academy will support the development of new programmes, initiatives, and teaching facilities in creative and performing arts education.
Before joining the CFA Team, Amy worked on a university-wide project focusing on delivering, developing and driving consistently high quality student support services across UCD. She also supported the start-up phase of a nation-wide continuous professional development programme for educational professionals.
Amy is delighted to be part of the Creative Futures Academy; she will bring her experience of working in school, college and project administration to the CFA, as well as her love and enthusiasm for theatre, film and all things creative.
Bio
Bernie is a lecturer in Design for the Body and Environment and Academic Lead for Creative Futures Academy in NCAD. She supports the development and validation of new programmes while also contributing to the institutional review of existing programmes across NCAD's Schools of Design, Fine Art, Education and Visual Culture. With extensive experience in collaborative practice, innovation, and entrepreneurship, Bernie has facilitated and mentored a range of creative collaborative projects and practitioners, often in collaboration with state agencies.
Her research focuses on new material development and the exploration of improvisation in responsive design. In addition to her academic and research roles, Bernie represents NCAD on the Creative Futures Academy's student and staff mobility working group, further contributing to the CFA's broader engagement and collaborative initiatives.
Job Titles:
- Head of the School of Visual Culture
Bio
David Crowley is Head of the School of Visual Culture at NCAD. Prior to joining the college, he was a professor in the School of Humanities at the Royal College of Art, London.
Crowley is a cultural historian of Eastern Europe under communist rule. His authored books include National Style and Nation-State. Design in Poland (1992) and Warsaw (2003) and he is the editor - with Susan Reid - of three landmark volumes: Socialism and Style. Material Culture in Post-war Eastern Europe (2000); Socialist Spaces. Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc (2003); and Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc (2010). His book, Ultra Sounds. The Sonic Art of Polish Radio Experimental Studio was published in 2019.
He also has a long-standing interest in visual culture and particularly graphic design, writing a book on the subject with Paul Jobling entitled Graphic Design. Representation and Reproduction since 1800 (1996). He is on the editorial board of Eye magazine and in summer 2016 he was invited to curate the Warsaw International Poster Biennale exhibition, The Poster Remediated.
As a curator, Crowley's other major exhibitions include Cold War Modern at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2008-9 (co-curated with Jane Pavitt); The Power of Fantasy. Modern and Contemporary Art from Poland at BOZAR, Brussels, 2011; Sounding the Body Electric. Experimental Art and Music in Eastern Europe at Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, 2012 and Calvert 22, London, 2013 (co-curated with Daniel Muzyczuk). Notes from the Underground. Alternative Art and Music in Eastern Europe 1968-1994, continues his interest in the intersections of music and visual art. First mounted in Łódź, Poland, in autumn 2016, the show opened in Berlin in spring 2018 (also co-curated with Daniel Muzyczuk).
Job Titles:
- President
- President, IADT
Bio
David Smith was appointed President of IADT in 2020.
He is the former Head of Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies at IADT. He has extensive experience in higher education and professional practice. He is principal of the widely acclaimed design studio Atelier and was Programme Chair and Senior Lecturer in Visual Communications Design at IADT until 2015.
Job Titles:
- Research Fellow in Cultural Policy, UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy
Victoria Durrer is a Research Fellow in Cultural Policy in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy. Her work focuses on how the spatial and relational dynamics of administration and policy both shape and are challenged by artistic practice as social, cultural, and professional endeavours.
Job Titles:
- Leader
- Head of Department, IADT
Bio
As an educator, researcher and academic leader Andrew has worked across a number of complementary disciplines including computing, design and psychology. He now heads the Department of Technology and Psychology, a vibrant academic unit that offers undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes in disciplines such as computing, media technologies, psychology, cyberpsychology and user experience design.
As a lecturer, Andrew has taught and supervised students studying topics including programming, generative art, human-computer interaction, user experience design, data visualisation, and physical interaction design. His research interests include various aspects of human-computer interaction, particularly spoken language, and he has published book chapters, conference papers and articles in these disciplines. He also regularly acts as a reviewer for conferences and was co-organiser of Dublin UX Camp 2017. Passionate about learning, particularly as it relates to education that furthers the design and development of technologies that improve people's lives, Andrew has been involved in successful funding bids to design and run initiatives in this area, including ICT & Young Women in Computing Summer Camps, Springboard & Jobs Stimulus programmes, and the Creative Futures Academy project.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the School of Art History
- Assistant Professor, UCD
Annette is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at UCD where her research focuses on emotion in organisations and how emotion influences and informs organisations behaviour and structure. Prior to joining UCD she ran her own organisational consultancy practice for over 17 years. She consulted to and coached senior executives in over 100 organisations across the public, private and cultural sectors in Ireland, England and the USA. Prior to her consulting career she held a number of arts management positions including; Artistic Director of Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford, Programme Administrator with the Dublin Theatre Festival and Administrator of the Soho Theatre Company in London. She is currently the Director of the MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of the MA / MFA Art
- Course Director, NCAD
Bio
Dr. Declan Long is co-director of the MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World - a theory and practice postgraduate programme for artists, curators and writers - and a lecturer in the School of Visual Culture at NCAD. He is a contributor to Artforum International, Frieze and Source Photographic Review, and the author of Ghost Haunted Land: Contemporary Art & Post-Troubles Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2017). He is currently Chair of the CFA Academic Development Group.
Dr. Díóg O'Connell lectures in IADT in Film & Media Studies specialising in Irish Cinema, Television Drama and Scriptwriting and is Programme Chair of the BA (Hons) in New Media Studies. She is the author of New Irish Storytellers: Narrative Strategies in Film (Intellect, 2010) and co-editor of Documentary in a Changing State (Cork University Press, 2012). She has written extensively on Irish Film and Media for academic books, journals and magazines and has presented her research at academic conferences in Ireland, Europe and America. She co-wrote the Irish entry on the history of Irish female screenwriters for Women Screenwriters: an International Guide (ed.) Jill Nelmes and Jule Selbo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Her current research explores pedagogy, storytelling and the short film narrative.
Díóg has worked in film and television drama production, and as part of the Writers' Team for Irish television drama productions. Currently, she is a member of the Screenwriting Research Network and an Irish representative on the international research group - European Imaginaries. She is also a contributor to Story Lab, Film EU.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in Creative and Cultural Industries
Dr. Dónal Fullam is Assistant Professor in Creative and Cultural Industries, based in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at University College Dublin. His research deals with music and art in contemporary algorithmic culture, focusing on the philosophical and technical foundations of algorithmic music composition, human-computer creative relationships and the intersections between art and technology in general.
He has substantial experience as a performer, in two very different musical worlds. He is a founding member of the National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra, the premiere performing ensemble for traditional Javanese music in Ireland, and he is a regular performer with various underground bands which have toured throughout Ireland, Europe, Russia and Australia. He is also a founding member and organiser of the Karate Club, a non-profit music rehearsal and arts space in Dublin city that has been running for over fifteen years.
Bio
Elaine is a Cultural Historian and Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture in the Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies, IADT and the Academic Lead for the CFA in IADT. She has extensive experience in academic leadership in art and design education, including academic management, programmatic and institutional review, strategic and curriculum development, teaching and learning, and securing research funding. In 2008, under PRTLI4, she was one of the founding members of the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media, the first inter-institutional initiative to offer taught doctoral programmes for creative practitioners. In 2018, as part of an IADT team, she won a DELTA award for disciplinary excellence in teaching and learning. She has broadcast and published widely in her research areas of early twentieth century Irish cultural history and visual modernism and is a member of the Royal Irish Academy's historical studies committee.
Job Titles:
- Head of Department, NCAD
- Head of the Department of Fine Art Media at the National College of Art
Bio
Dr. Feargal Fitzpatrick is Head of the Department of Fine Art Media at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. His current research project 'The Politics of the Image: Ireland, Landscape and Nineteenth-Century Photography' presents a contemporary theoretical reading of a discontinuous field that, up to now, has been dealt with largely on an empirical or historical basis. The Media Department's teaching and research priorities are in the fields of lens-based, digital and post-internet art.
Job Titles:
- NCAD Creative Futures Academy Co - Ordinator
- Producer, Journalist
Bio
Dr Joanna Crawley (Derkaczew) is a producer, journalist, translator and dramaturg. Originally from Warsaw, where she worked 2005 - 2012 as the chief theater critic with the leading national daily newspaper in Poland "Gazeta Wyborcza" and as a radio broadcaster with TokFM. In 2014 she co-funded a Dublin-based theatre collective White Label with which she produced live events, conferences and theatre shows, including "Story Machines" festival, "(A)pollonia - New Plays From Poland @ Dublin Theatre Festival", "Override" by Stacey Gregg and her own play "The Eurydice Project". As a producer and dramaturg she collaborated with The Abbey Theatre, Project Arts Centre, Rough Magic, Loose Canon, Brinkmanship Company, Eccles Theatre. She was the project manager with THEATREclub (2016-18) and the Admissions and Short Courses manager with The Lir Academy of Dramatic Art - Trinity College Dublin (2018-22).
Her translations of Irish plays into Polish include the work of Grace Dyas, Simon Doyle and Gavin Quinn, Deirdre Kinahan, Amy Conroy, Tom Murphy, Owen McCafferty. Honored with ASSITEJ Award for Excellence in Theatre Criticism. She holds a PhD in emancipatory education and theatre practices and she lectures at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor, UCD
Lucy Collins is an associate professor in the UCD School of English, Drama and Film and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the UCD College of Arts and Humanities. Educated at Trinity College Dublin and at Harvard University, where she spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar, she teaches and researches in the area of modern poetry and poetics. She has published essays and books on modern poetry from Ireland, Britain and America, including Contemporary Irish Women Poets: Memory and Estrangement (Liverpool UP, 2015). She is co-founder of the Irish Poetry Reading Archive, a national digital repository.
Job Titles:
- Academic Lead, UCD
- Assistant Professor of Creative
Bio
Dr. Nicolas Pillai is Assistant Professor of Creative and Critical Practice, based in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin. In 2017, he received a Research Leadership Fellowship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for his project ‘Jazz on BBC-TV 1960-1969.' Based on his work, the BBC Four programme Jazz 625 Live went on to win Best Music Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2020.
Pillai is the author of Jazz as Visual Language: Film, Television and the Dissonant Image (2016, I. B. Tauris), co-edits the biannual peer-reviewed Jazz Research Journal and is currently developing the collection Rethinking Miles Davis for Oxford University Press. For the British Film Institute and Arrow Films, he has written essays for Blu-Ray releases of films by Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Jacques Demy, Barbra Streisand, Karel Reisz and Sidney Lumet. He also writes the ongoing Instagram comic strip Greyscale.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Founder and Director of Five Javanese
Peter Moran is a composer and music director whose interests include microtones and tuning systems, postcard miniatures, and sacred choral music.
He received his music degree from University College Dublin and his MA and PhD from the University of York. His awards and commissions include the Carl von Ossietzky Composition Prize, the Walter Becket Cup for Original Song, the Per Cent for Arts Commission and numerous Arts Council Awards. He has held artistic residencies at University College Dublin, the soundSCAPE Contemporary Music Festival in Italy, and the Frédéric Chopin Conservatoire in Paris. His music has featured in concerts and festivals across Europe, Asia and North America, and is released on Ergodos Records and Farpoint Recordings.
Peter is the founder and director of five Javanese gamelan orchestras in Dublin, in University College Dublin and in the National Concert Hall, since he acquired a complete set of gamelan instruments as a gift from the Sultan of Yogyakarta in 2014. His NCH Gamelan Orchestra has performed across Ireland, the UK and Indonesia, at festivals including the Electric Picnic, the Yogyakarta Performing Arts Festival, and the International Gamelan Festival in Java in 2018.
His current compositional interest is in creating choral settings of spiritual texts. When not composing or gamelaning, he can be found playing in local folk music sessions or leading a number of meditation groups in Dublin.
Dunk Murphy holds a Degree in Visual Communication from NCAD (B.Des) and a Masters in Music Technology from the University of Limerick (MA). His research examines relationships between algorithmic music and visual music focusing on digital performance interfaces and computational infrastructures.
Dunk has worked extensively composing music for theatre, film and art installation working on a disparate array of interdisciplinary projects in receipt of international acclaim including scoring Michael West's ‘FRNKNST' staged in Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Dunk has also worked for many years in media and advertising collaborating on award winning projects in both music and design with leading agencies in Ireland and abroad.
As an Educator, Dunk has taught music technology and digital multimedia in the University of Limerick and Pulse College Dublin drawing on his experience as a practicing artist. Dunk has been composing, producing, arranging and performing music on the international stage for over twenty years with a vast back catalogue of releases and live concerts to his credit while also curating the Countersunk record label for over ten years.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator, IADT
Bio
Elena is the CFA Project Co-ordinator at IADT. Prior to her current role, Elena worked in the IADT Marketing Office (student recruitment, promotion and communications, advertising, event management) and the IADT Support Services Department (co-ordinating supports for students with disabilities, learning difficulties, or from disadvantaged backgrounds). From 2012 to 2021, she set up and developed the Erasmus Programme (KA1) in IADT (partnerships, students and staff mobilities, funding applications, reporting to National Agency, etc.).
As a member of the CFA team in IADT, Elena will coordinate the operations and communications of the CFA within IADT and its partners; support the development, growth and evolution of academic programmes, discipline priorities and research activities between IADT and our partners, and other third-party agencies; support student recruitment; provide guidance and support to students; and work with academic, administrative and technical support staff and engage with wider groups of staff.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Lecturer and Researcher, NCAD
Bio
Fiona King is a lecturer and researcher who leads the Professional Master of Education (PME) programme in the School of Education at the National College of Art and Design. Fiona has over 20 years extensive teaching experience at both second and third level in the field of visual arts and gallery education. She has worked as a lecturer in Initial Teacher Education across several third level institutes including, Trinity College Dublin; Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University; Marino Institute of Education (MIE) and as interim co-ordinator of the Ubuntu Network within the Dept. of Education & Professional Studies, University of Limerick.
Along with her colleague, Tony Murphy, Fiona is joint programme leader of the Change Lab in NCAD, an artist-teacher led research and pedagogical initiative. The Change Lab involves locating Global Citizenship Education within the heart of learning in Year 2 of the PME programme, https://thechangelab.ie/. Through her work as a researcher in NCAD and as a member of the Ubuntu Network she has published and presented her research at both national and international educational conferences, including the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI), The Five Nations Conference and The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). Her current research interests are two-fold, firstly to explore the role of the gallery as a pedagogical site to foster artist, teacher, researcher identity on the PME programme. Secondly, to consider how occupying this tripartite identity can serve as a lens to inform a more critical framing of the student teachers' conceptualisation of the post primary Visual Art curriculum.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer & Researcher, IADT
Bio
Fiona Snow is a studio-based lecturer, practitioner and researcher of Art and Design education. An expert in creative arts pedagogies, Fiona is a co-recipient of a Disciplinary Excellence in Teaching and Learning (DELTA) award, and consults as an Art and Design subject matter expert for QQI.
Her current research project, the Creative Cognition Framework (CCF), has been funded by the National Forum for Teaching and Learning. The CCF is a customisable and interactive tool that supports critical and effective curriculum design.
Fiona teaches across the Faculty of Film, Art and Creative technologies from 1st year undergraduate to MA supervision on a diverse range of courses. A passionate advocate for the learning that takes place inside Art and Design institutions, Fiona is committed to articulating and advancing the unique and powerful ways of knowing that are afforded to creative arts learners and practitioners.
Job Titles:
- Lead for Sustainability and Circular Economy, NCAD
Bio
Gwen is a designer by trade, but for the past decade she has been focussed on driving the practical implementation of circularity across the textiles and apparel industry.
Since 2014, Gwen has led the Textiles Programme at the impact organisation Circle Economy Foundation, in Amsterdam, The mission of the Textiles Programme is to achieve a zero waste textiles industry. In this role, Gwen manages a team of circular textiles specialists and designs and leads various international multi-stakeholder research and innovation projects with brands, retailers, recyclers etc.
Since returning to Ireland in 2020, Gwen has taken up a new role at CFA at NCAD, as Lead for Circularity and Sustainability. Here her role is to lead the development of new educational national provisions circularity, including the Circular by Design Professional Diploma for current industry professionals and a new Circular Design Masters - to be launched in the coming year.
Gwen co-founded World Circular Textiles Day, chairs the Irish Government's Textiles Advisory Group, and sits on the Board of the EU Commission's WORTH Partnership Programme and on the Advisory Board of chemical polyester recycler Worn Again Technologies.
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director in Residence, UCD
Jennifer Jennings is a theatre and festival-maker based in Dublin. She is co-founder and co-director of acclaimed Irish theatre company THISISPOPBABY.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director, Creative Futures Academy / Professor P.J. Mathews / Director, UCD Creative Futures Academy
Bio
Louise has extensive leadership experience in the creative and cultural sector both nationally and internationally. As Director of the Creative Futures Academy, a pivotal initiative that will provide agile and responsive courses to up-skill Ireland's cultural and creative sector, she leads a team that spans three Higher Education Institutes: The National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT) and University College Dublin (UCD).
Prior to this, as CEO (acting) and Head of Innovation and Research at the Design & Crafts Council Ireland, she was central to the strategic development of the design and craft sector. During her tenure as President of World Crafts Council Europe, she forged critical international partnerships, most notably with Atelier d'Art de France, the LOEWE Foundation and The Michelangelo Foundation where she was instrumental in the development of the Homo Faber biennale in Venice in 2018. During Irish Design 2015, as Head of the International Programme, she devised the strategy for the co-ordination and delivery of over 100 design-led events across 60 cities in 30 countries. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Liminal-Irish Design at the Threshold, The Global Irish Design Challenge and Second Skin.
Louise is a regular contributor to policies with national reach including: Ireland Design Ireland - Towards a National Design Policy; Plans for a National Design Centre as part of the Government's National Development Plan, 2040; Future Jobs Ireland and Ireland's Global Footprint.
Job Titles:
- Director, Creative Futures Academy / Professor P.J. Mathews / Director, UCD Creative Futures Academy
- Founding Member of the Creative Futures Academy and Director
- Member of the Governing Board of RTE
Dr Mathews is a member of the governing board of RTÉ, acting as the Chair of the Board's Programme Committee and Strategy Committee. He is the Founder and Director of Academic Podcasting for UCDscholarcast, and has previously served as a Visiting Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. He was Academic Director of the W.B. Yeats Winter School in Sligo (2017-20) and the Parnell Summer School in Avondale (2002-05).
P.J. Mathews is a founding member of the Creative Futures Academy and Director of the CFA at University College Dublin, where he is a Professor of Irish Literature, Drama and Culture. He leads the Engaged Creativity research strand for the College of Arts and Humanities, and is Chair of the UCD Council of Creative Fellows.
Job Titles:
- Administration and Communications Officer
- Qualified Digital Marketing Specialist
Bio
Pace Borza-Butterly has almost two decades of experience working in communications, marketing, publicity and sales within the Arts, Culture, Heritage & Environmental sectors in Belfast, London and Dublin. Pace has held positions at the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin), the Ormeau Baths Gallery (Belfast), Bonhams Auctioneers, New Bond Street (London), akg-images - the Fine Art and History Picture Library (London) and the Gaiety School of Acting - The National Theatre School of Ireland (Dublin).
Pace is a Qualified Digital Marketing Specialist with an academic background in History of Art & English Literature (B.A, UCD) and Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies (M.A, University of Ulster). In addition to her knowledge of the arts sector, she is well informed on green issues and helping businesses communicate the role they play in helping protect and enhance the environment and foster a culture of inclusion and diversity. For several years, Pace provided communication consultancy services to Sustainable Finance Ireland (now the International Sustainable Finance Centre of Excellence) which is a member of the UNDP Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) working towards delivering on the Paris Agreement & the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She helped to deliver & communicate Climate Finance Week Ireland since its inception in 2018 until 2023. She is delighted to join the Creative Futures Academy team in a communications capacity.
Bio
Robert Griffin lectures in the Department of Technology and Psychology in IADT, specialising in user experience design, online learning and immersive technologies. Previously Robert was Programme Chair for the BSc [Hons] Applied Psychology and MSc Cyberpsychology.
As a lecturer, Robert has taught and supervised students studying topics including Creative Computing, UX, ICT, Virtual Reality and Artificial intelligence. His research interests include developing virtual environments, various aspects of human-computer interaction particularly in three dimensional spaces. He has published book chapters, conference papers and articles in these disciplines.
Robert is an enthusiastic early adopter of new technologies, using Social Media, Wiki's, Podcasts, video/audio editing, online collaboration, and virtual learning environments.
Currently part of an Erasmus+ project titled Accessible Immersive Learning for Art and Design, collaborating with partners across Ukraine, UK, Ireland and Poland to improve the teaching of art and design at higher education in a post-pandemic Europe through the development of innovative methodologies, tools, platforms, and resources for accessible immersive learning. Robert has also given workshops in virtual reality production to postgraduate students at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technologies in Warsaw and Aalto University in Helsinki for the last five years.
Job Titles:
- Administration and Communications Coordinator
Bio
Shauna is the Administration and Communications Coordinator for Creative Futures Academy, with over 10 years of experience in the arts and cultural sector. She has previously worked for national and international organisations including IMMA, National Gallery of Ireland, Design & Crafts Council Ireland and World Crafts Council Europe. As a result, she has experience in complex, multi-disciplinary settings and has developed a creative thinking approach to problem-solving, driving results through partnerships and collaboration. Shauna has worked across and managed high profile, multi-partner European projects and successfully delivered projects and events in Ireland and abroad.
Shauna will work closely with NCAD, IADT and UCD communications teams to ensure effective CFA communications both internally and externally across the 3 institutions. She is excited to be part of the CFA team and to communicate the ambitions and impacts of the programme.
Bio
Stefan Paz Berrios is a lecturer in Design and User Experience. He lectures on the Masters and Postgraduate Diploma in User Experience Design, BSc (Hons) in Creative Computing, BSc (Hons) in Applied Psychology, and BA (Hons) in Visual Communication Design. As a lecturer he has taught and supervised students in a wide range of disciplines including data visualisation, accessibility and web typography. His current research interests are motivated by the empowerment of people through accessible, robust and beautifully designed technology.
Most recently, he completed an Erasmus+ project that enabled migrants to upskill, integrate and set up their own business in Europe. The final output was the design, development and integration of a bespoke Virtual Learning Environment.
Job Titles:
- Co - Ordinator for South Dublin County Council