What is it?

free event open to any young person over the age of 18. Just drop in - 6pm sharp!

Are you a young person about to embark on a career in the arts or a young person looking to start a journey in the creative industries and you don’t know where to start? Then you need Pick Our Brainz. This is your chance to have a sit down informal chat with 5 Brainz working in the arts in Belfast today. These Brainz come from a wide range of backgrounds and skills ranging from circus performance, street art, animation, song writing, curation, facilitation and much more.

Open to: young creative types, art students, recent grads, people who haven’t studied art but are interested in working in the arts.

This will be an informal event, with a range of refreshments, biscuits and fruit available.

How does it work?

When you arrive, you’ll add your name to a timed slot, and start making your way around the room. You as part of a group will get time to chat to the Brainz about art and their particular journeys in the art world but bear in mind, you only have 10 minutes with each of the Brainz. The event starts at 6pm sharp, arrive in time!

We picked these Brainz because we think they have a lot of experience to share with you, and they come from a range of different disciplines and approaches to art making. We also think they’re pretty fun, so you can have good chats with them.

Prep:

Please prepare an answer to these two questions:

Something about me/my work

Something I would like to know about the person I’m speaking to

Bring this with you! It will make moving around the room a lot easier

Here are some keywords and bios on each of the Brainz who’ll be there…

Leo Boyd: Street sign enthusiast, meat wagon fetishist and part time street artist.

Leo Boyd is an award winning screen printer and street artist based in Belfast. His work is often playful, both in his use of mediums and themes which tend towards mashing day-glo pop culture with surveillance capitalism and the day to day absurdity of modern life.

Kerrie Hanna: Craftswoman, stained glass, street artist, facilitator, producer.

Kerrie Hanna is a visual artist working in a graphic style across illustration, murals and stained glass. Her practice is often socially engaged with a strong focus on projects centred on community arts and co-design.

Paddy Maguire: Satire, Surreal, Animation, Performance, Interactive.

Rarewitch is a visual artist, musician, animator and film-maker currently living and working in Belfast.

Jane Morrow: curating, artist development, funding applications, exhibition proposals, networks, closeted artist.

Jane is a visual art curator, writer, researcher and advocate. Currently, she is Co-Director and Strategic Vision & Development Curator of PS2, she co-initated and manages Angelica (a network which aims to amplify the voices of visual artists and curators based on the island of Ireland who self-identify as women or minority gender, who are also from under-represented cultural or ethnic backgrounds), she is working on a big research project for British Council Ireland, and is also the Secretary of the International Art Critics Association (Ireland).

Ash Ashton: Performer, theatre-maker, facilitator, multi-disciplinary artist.

Ashton is a multi-disciplinary performing artist and facilitator. They attempted to have a rather serious career as an actor, but accidentally fell in love with trapeze: twelve countries and a number of questionable costume choices later, they work across a wide range of artforms, including circus, theatre, movement, puppetry and visual art.

This event is free and open to any young person over the age of 18. Just drop in but arrive in time at 6pm sharp!

Getting here and accessibility info Marlborough House