“My work is about people. It’s being a companion to the artist and a companion to the public. To develop something together, in dialogue, across a long period of time, that enables our personal development, but also enables us to engage in the social discussion of the moment.”

From volunteering at a festival in Coimbra, Portugal, as a politicised 18-year-old, to being the first ever Portuguese person to attend an MA in curatorship at the Royal College of Art in London, to his vision for a further five years at Sirius Arts Centre, Miguel Amado reflects on his directorship over the past five years and the Irish art scene more broadly.

“It’s this idea of needing to narrate your existence, and how you look and where you come from, and the complexity of yourself, and it’s having to do that in circumstances where you’re not sure exactly if every part of who you are is welcome.”

Alice Rekab’s Clann Miotlantach / Mythlantics is on in Sirius Arts Centre. The exhibition is, held both in the conventional gallery spaces of the institution and, for the first time, in its basement. Rekab is an Irish/Sierra Leonean artist based in Dublin who explores themes of familial and artistic connections, diaspora, and sense of place and belonging.

In the summer of 2024, works started on an extensive three phase restoration project at Sirius Arts Centre. Led by JCA Architects and Moroney Conservation, the works to the building began with restoring some of the features that architect Anthony Salvin designed for the RCYC clubhouse all the way back in the 1850s.

In the third and final instalment of Changing Tides, join conservation architect Gareth O’Callaghan to hear all about the exciting and ambitious works, some of which are completed, and some of which are underway, and hear an outline vision for the future of the historic building.

Changing Tides is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under Cork County Council’s Heritage Plan Funding 2024.

“The architects of these buildings are looking back to the Italian renaissance; this building is a revival of a revival, if you know what I mean.

This is an Irish building which is copying a Roman building of the renaissance, which is copying a building of Ancient Rome.”

Historian Tom Spalding is the man whose meticulous research proved that the Royal Cork Yacht Club, constructed in 1854 on the site of a pavilion first constructed for the visit of Queen Victoria, was designed by English architect Sir Anthony Salvin, best known for his restoration work on Windsor Castle and the Tower of London.

In episode 2 of Changing Tides, Tom revisits the very beginnings of the RCYC clubhouse, known today as SIRIUS arts centre.

Changing Tides is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under Cork County Council’s Heritage Plan Funding 2024.

“It was something that was broken, and I had to fix it.”

In 1987 Peter Murray, then curator at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork city, embarked on an extraordinary journey: his goal was to purchase and restore the then-derelict former Royal Cork Yacht Club building in Cobh and to transform it into a cultural venue. Over time, this vision crystalised: SIRIUS Arts Centre was to become an artist’s residency of international appeal, forging transatlantic connections.

Peter Murray’s voyage was by no means a solo one. In this in-depth conversation, he pays tribute to the many others whose hard work, time and generosity went into rescuing the RCYC building and making it into the arts centre it is today.

Changing tides is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under Cork County Council’s Heritage Plan Funding 2024.

Thaís Muniz’s first solo show, 'Rites of Care, Curse & Comfort,' features prints, performance, installation, and textiles, some newly made for this occasion. The exhibition explores ideas of race, displacement and memory in a postcolonial context.

In this episode of SIRIUS Podcasts, we join artist Sarah Browne, whose practice involves film, publishing and performance, to discuss her film installation Buttercup, which utilises the accessibility tools of audio description and captioning to explore the poetics of language interacting with image.

Buttercup focuses on a particular childhood photograph, depicting a child wearing a Communion dress on her family farm, next to her father and her pet cow, the eponymous Buttercup.

Buttercup is commissioned by SIRIUS and produced with funding from the Arts Council’s Arts and Disability Connect scheme managed by Arts & Disability Ireland. The presentation of Buttercup is produced by SIRIUS.

“A harbour, because of its particular geography and how industry has developed, and commerce and trade, lends itself to these bigger industrial and economic forces coming into play, and that´s what´s happening as you´re getting further down the river.” Aoife Desmond on two of her films showing at SIRIUS, both exploring the relationship between humans and nature: one feature poetically tracing the River Lee from source to sea, and a short companion piece commissioned by and filmed at SIRIUS that engages with the site and its surroundings.