Four Laois creatives to share €65,000
Portlaoise artist Paddy Critchley will receive the maximum €20,000 bursary award. File photo
FOUR Laois-based artists and creators will share €65,000 in funding announced today.
A local photographer, a painter, a pianist and a performance poet have been selected for Arts Council grants.
Artist Paddy Critchley, photographer Bernadette Keating and theatre performer Dagogo Hart will receive €20,000 each, while young pianist and trad musician David Vesey will receive €5,000.
The grants announced on 29 July will go to 258 artists nationwide, in the €4.3m latest round of the bursary award scheme.
The Arts Council said the awards support individual artists and performers with grants of up to €20,000, giving them ‘the time and resources necessary to think, research, reflect and engage with their arts practice’.
Still in his 20s, Portlaoise artist Paddy Critchley started out painting and decorating houses with his dad Declan, before graduating in fine art from the Limerick School of Art & Design in 2021.
He has exhibited in venues ranging from the Hunt Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art to the Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise and has work in the Limerick City Gallery of Art and the Hunt Museum’s permanent collection. He won the De Veres Art Award for Work of Distinction at the 191st Annual RHA Exhibition and hosted masterclasses at the Laois Arthouse, Stradbally in 2024.
Paddy also has a keen interest in theatre and the theatrical staging of objects, taking these elements and transferring them to the studio, while incorporating photography, film and literature.
Dividing her time between Laois and Leipzig in Germany, photographer and visual artist Bernadette Keating explores the built environment and its relationships to human experience using still photography, video, text, sound and installation.
She has an advanced postgraduate qualification in photography and media from the Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig and an MA in documentary photography from the University of the Arts, London.
Her book ‘Of Bounds’ was long-listed for Germany’s ‘Most Beautiful Art Book of the Year’ award in 2022, while her photo book ‘30 Irish Landscapes’ made it to the shortlist for Amsterdam’s Unseen Photobook Award in 2015.
A Nigerian-Irish writer, poet, playwright and theatre-maker, Dagogo Hart’s work spans poetry, theatre, film and education, which he describes as ‘rooted in performance but designed to resonate beyond the stage’.
He has featured on everything from TV to film and bar basements, led poetry workshops and showcases across Ireland and West Africa and is the author of Lantern Smoke, a children’s book published by Gill Books in 2025.
His acclaimed play ‘MMANWU’ explores grief and cultural identity, while his latest play ‘PALMFIST’ continues his powerful interrogation of masculinity, violence and vulnerability.
Dagogo is also a co-founder of WeAreGriot, a collective committed to platforming Black Irish voices through performance poetry, storytelling and collaboration.
Renowned pianist, traditional musician and music educator David Vesey, a former student member of Spink Comhaltas, is passionate about encouraging young musicians to develop and follow their own path.
The award-winning performer from Abbeyleix explores the boundaries between classical and traditional Irish music and launched his acclaimed debut album Carolan Reflections’ in 2024, reimagining the timeless works of Turlough O’Carolan.
David graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 2021 from the MTU Cork School of Music, graduating as the highest placed student with first class honours. He won the Advanced Recital competition in the conservatoire and received an MTU Arts Office Bursary to support his professional development.
An 1848 scholar at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, studying with Hugh Tinney, he has won many national prizes for both classical and traditional Irish music.
