PAST EVENTS

Inaugural Danijela Kulezic-Wilson Memorial Postgraduate Symposium
17 October, University College Cork

Dr. Danijela Kulezic-Wilson was a member of staff at the University College Cork Music Department until her passing in 2021. Her innovative research on film music and sound is respected worldwide and is an outstanding exemplar of interdisciplinary thought.

In honour of Dr. Kulezic-Wilson’s work, and to further interdisciplinary research in artistic fields, UCC will host the inaugural Danijela Kulezic-Wilson Memorial Postgraduate Symposium this year.

The one-day event will host presentations by researchers from around the world, and provide the opportunity to exchange ideas, methodologies, and inspiration, as well as to network with others across and between specialisations.

Embodied Monologues Symposium 2025: Cathy Berberian and Theatrical Imagination
5 September 2025, Maynooth University

In the year marking the official 100th anniversary of Cathy Berberian’s birth, a one-day symposium will celebrate the work of the American mezzo-soprano known as “the Callas of the Avant-Garde”.
With a view to exploring the particular crosscurrents between the performative languages that forged New Music Theatre in post-world war II Europe, we situate Berberian at the centre of pioneering vocal experimentation while always seeking wider considerations as to her place in these crosscurrents.
An iteration of the Embodied Monologues series (2017, 2022), the 2025 Embodied Monologues Symposium invites you to join a transdisciplinary laboratory posing the eclectic work of Cathy Berberian as a platform to pivot conversations about underrepresented performance practices and practitioners in New Music Theatre and other forms of staged vocal performance.
The event will significantly foster the overlap between contemporary opera and other experimental forms of theatre with/in music from the time, especially highlighting its legacies in the contemporary production and scholarly scene.

ICTS 2025 Symposium ‘Contested (Hi)Stories in Media and Creative Arts’
18 March 2025, 3 – 8 pm, Dance Limerick (Chapel, St. John’s Square)

Academics and arts practitioners come together in this interdisciplinary symposium to explore the role of media and creative arts in the telling of (Hi)Stories that challenge dominant narratives about global conflict and forced migration. The symposium kicks off with a live performance of ‘Migrating Musical Selves’, bringing together Ukrainian sounds and stories. A panel of international artists and research leaders will discuss forms of story-telling and how empowering arts can drive academic, political, and public discourse. Panellists include Professor Florian Schneider (University of Trondheim/Galway, ‘Virtual Production & Questions of Abstraction and Empathy’); Professor Monika Wolting (University of Wrocław, ‘Literature as a Predictive Model. The Cassandra Project’); Dr Ailbhe McDaid (MIC, ‘Pathologies of Violence: Irish Literary Responses to Global Conflict’).

The day concludes with a public screening of the award-winning Canadian-French-Ukrainian documentary Intercepted (2024), by Oksana Karpovych. In this feature-length documentary sound and image merge as the film contrasts quiet compositions of everyday life of Ukrainians since the full-scale invasion with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families. The film raises key questions on fact and fiction, lived realities and narratives. The event is FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Participants and listeners are welcome to drop in throughout the day.

The symposium, organised by Dr Sabine Egger and Dr Ailbhe Kenny, is hosted by the Irish Centre for Transnational Studies (MIC) as part of this year’s Limerick Early Music Festival (LEMF25), and stage two of the interdisciplinary three-year-ICTS project ‘Trajectories of belonging: Creative (hi)stories, spaces and futures of migration’. The event is supported by the MIC Research & Graduate School‘s ‘Group Support Scheme’ and the EDII Office. Find the full symposium programme and further information here, and the LEMF25 programme here.

FULL PROGRAMME 15:15-15:30

Welcome & Introduction

15:30-16:00 Performance ‘Migrating Musical Selves’

16:15-17:45 Panel

‘Literature as a Predictive Model: How Literary Texts Anticipate Social and Political Developments’ Professor Monika Wolting (Wroclaw)

‘Pathologies of Violence: Irish Literary Responses to Global Conflict’ Dr Ailbhe McDaid (Limerick)

‘Virtual Production & Questions of Abstraction and Empathy’ Professor Florian Schneider (Galway/Trondheim)

17:45-18:30 Reception

18:30-20:00

Film Screening ‘Intercepted’

IMBAS National Workshop on Arts Practice Research

13 November 2023, 11am-4pm

Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin

The goal of this workshop is to support knowledge-exchange and discussion with arts practice researchers and key stake-holders including The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Culture Action Europe, towards the development of a roadmap for arts practice dissemination training and policy-building.

The workshop is hosted by Trinity Long Room Hub at Trinity College Dublin and facilitated by IMBAS, a national forum for arts practice researchers and artists.

Committed to ensuring that arts practice research is fully accepted and valued as an important mainstream academic discourse in Ireland, IMBAS engages in strategic and collaborative training and policy development within Irish Higher Education and seeks to influence the development of wider sectoral and national policy regarding performing arts research in Ireland.

In 2021, IMBAS published the Perspectives report with Solstice Arts Centre, providing an overview of the arts practice landscape in Ireland. The report identified the need for clear criteria and processes regarding the recognition and dissemination of arts practice research outputs. In 2023, IMBAS led a successful bid for one of thirteen National Open Research Forum (NORF) consortium awards around ‘Sharing Arts Practice FAIRly’. This marks a major national investment in training and guidance for storing, sharing and counting arts practice outputs.

This workshop will support the development of a roadmap to progress this work, through listening to, and learning from, the experiences of practitioners and stakeholders.

Schedule:

11.00-1.00: IMBAS-facilitated workshop on roadmap planning with arts practice researchers.

2.00-4.00: Roundtable with stakeholders including presentations from:

• • Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe
  • Lisa McLoughlin, Head of Dance, Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon
  • Siobhán Callaghan, Research Officer, Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The day will conclude with open plenary discussion and a Q&A session with the presenters and participants.
Registration is required, but is free of charge.

Coffee/Tea will be provided in morning and afternoon sessions, but participants will make their own lunch arrangements.

Taighde Dána

An Irish-language artistic symposium entitled Taighde Dána will be taking place 14-15 October 2022 at Maynooth University. Proceedings will include a mixture of talks and workshops, and the internationally renowned fiddle-player and singer from Gaoth Dobhair, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, will be with us as our guest speaker at the Artists’ Forum on Friday night. 

Other highlights include a contemporary dance workshop through Irish with Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín at 09.30am on Saturday morning, who will also perform alongside Nada Ní Chuirrín at an afternoon lecture-recital and dance performance at 2pm that same day. 

Other leading Irish-language artists who will be with us for the symposium include: 

Celia de Fréine (playwriting workshop), Eoin McEvoy (poetry), Tadhg Mac Donnagáin (prose and composition), Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabháin (poetry/rap), Odi Ní Chéileachair (sean-nós singing workshop), Pádraig Ó Sé (accordion/singing), Siobhán Ní Mhuimhneacháin agus Maebh Ní Dhuinnín (lúibíní workshop), Nada Ní Chuirrín (sean-nós dance), Marina Ní Dhubháin (theatre). 

The symposium is funded by Foras na Gaeilge, Lárionad na Gaeilge, and Roinn na Nua-Ghaeilge. 

The full list of events can be viewed here https://tinyurl.com/45u37c9j and all are welcome. 

Admission is free, but pre-registration is required: https://tinyurl.com/2p58ynut . Please note that places for workshops are limited and so early registration is advised. 

Further information: taighdedana@mu.ie  

PERFORM_LIVE (25-27 March 2022)

A Festival of Music Performance Research at the National Concert Hall, Dublin

In association with

Performance Research Ireland

And

IMBAS: An Irish Forum for Arts Practice Researchers and Scholars

Further information available HERE

Perspectives: Artistic Practice and Research

On the 24th of September 2021, IMBAS and Solstice Arts Centre hosted Perspectives: Artistic Practice and Research. More than eighty people attended the event online to explore and discuss the relationship between research and artistic practice. More information on the event and the presenters can be found in the seminar programme here.

Session One

In session one, artists Kathleen Turner, Wayne Jordan and Lisa McLoughlin presented their work followed by a Q&A chaired by Aileen Dillane, Senior Lecturer in Music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick.

Book Launch

A new publication, The Artist and Academia (Routledge 2021), was launched by artists Tríona Ní Shíocháin and Fióna Bolger along with Helen Phelan and Graham F. Welch, editors of the publication.

Session Two

In session two, artists Danny McCarthy, Brian Fay, and Tríona Ní Shíocháin presented their work followed by a Q&A chaired by Belinda Quirke, Director of Solstice.

Roundtable

In the Roundtable session, Helen Phelan, Professor of Arts Practice at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Olga Barry, Director of Kilkenny Arts Festival and Yvon Bonenfant, Head of the Department of Theatre at University College Cork responded to the works, ideas and processes presented by the panellists in the earlier sessions. The discussion was chaired by Méabh Ní Fhuartháin, Lecturer and Head of Discipline at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway.

The report about the Perspectives event can now be seen above. To view full screen, click the full screen icon in the menu bar.

2020 EVENTS

IMBAS is pleased to have contributed to two online panels as part of the Visioning the Future – Artistic Doctorates in Ireland project based at UCC.

Thursday September 3rd, 2020 at 11am – Artistic Doctorates in Ireland – More information here

Tuesday September 22nd 2020 at 11am – Artistic Research PhDs: Process, Experience and Ideas – More information here

IMBAS was formally launched at an event in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick on 9th November 2017. The event was marked with a public lecture by Prof. Sir Christopher Frayling, chaired by Chris Baldwin, Creative Director of Galway European Capital of Culture 2020.