About Our Studios

Rathmines | Harolds Cross | Kilmainham | Crumlin | Blackpitts

MART Studios: Providing a space to support the production and exhibition of visual art.

Check Out our Available Studios Here.

Through MART Studios we pride ourselves on sustaining a community of studios that offer affordable, cooperative and professional environments for the development of all things cultural! We do this by working with local landlords and authorities to inhabit spaces that facilitate artists’ studios and workspaces for creatives. We cater to emerging and established practitioners with a range of studios and project spaces for all forms of creativity. We are the largest supplier of independent space for the arts, cultural and creative community in Ireland, now supporting 170 members in eight studio buildings across Dublin.

Our members and studios have a strong impact on the local and national Creative Economy. Our studios have great transport links and neighbour some of Dublin’s best bars, cafés, restaurants & vintage shops. At MART we redevelop buildings, work with local communities, attract and create jobs and improve localities through our main values:

Cultural Advocacy: We advocate for the arts and visual culture, promoting inspiration, education and freedom of expression. We develop creative platforms to support and challenge artists. We dedicate all of our activities to supporting creativity.
Community Building: We regenerate vacant and derelict buildings, allowing them to serve their locality. We create communities of artists allowing for opportunities of collaboration and support.
Sustainability: We operate as a self-supporting organisation and provide a safe studio environment allowing artists to concentrate on their work and sustain their practice in a dedicated space, free from worry.

All income generated by the organisation is invested back into our not-for-profit activities: creating platforms for artists through studios and exhibitions, building refurbishment, providing employment and encouraging the growth of artistic communities.

Key Statistics:

50% Artists & 50% Creatives
40% of our members work internationally
60% of our members collaborate together
Main disciplines include: Visual Art, Illustration, Photography, Painting, Design, Creative Industries
70% of our MART Studio Members believe having a studio has increased their growth and practice
Members use studios for: Creative Community | Collaboration | Professionalism | Raise Profile | Creative Working Environment | Push Boundaries | Peer Support | Less Isolation | Opportunity to Grow

Our Story:

MART was set up by artists for artists. It began in 2007 by Ciara Scanlan and Matthew Nevin as a way to create exhibition opportunities for emerging artists. MART seeks to create opportunities by providing creative platforms to support creatives from all stages of their careers to test new ground. As a curatorial partnership Ciara & Matthew have curated over 200 artists through 50 exhibitions across Ireland, UK, Europe, USA & Japan. In 2013 MART opened two art galleries in a converted old fire station in Rathmines, Dublin 6, and as of 2018 has become the largest provider of studios in Ireland.

Public Opinion:

70% believe MART has had large Dublin 6 & 8 cultural, social, economic growth in the past 5 years
70% believe action should be taken to keep MART and similar organisations sustainable and open
82% believe Studio Spaces like MART are vital in Dublin City
80% believe MART’s Artistic Platforms rate 8/10

Solo & Shared:

MART is proud to provide a wide range of creative studios varying in sizes. We have small and large workshop spaces, contemporary studios and several large Georgian rooms with exposed brickwork and high ceilings. We cater to individuals, small groups and assist in pairing if you’re looking for a comrade to share with.

Benefits:

No Bills.
Curator Visits.
Fire and burglar alarm, monitored 24hrs a day.
Superfast Broadband.
Parking where possible.
Monthly Members Group Critiques.
Regular Open Studio evenings.
Safe & Comfortable Space.
All Artists Featured on Website.
Free use of gallery space for personal use (documentation of work, photoshoots, rehearsals, etc) – max. four hours at a time up to twice a month (working hours only, subject to availability).
On The Radar For Exhibitions.
Access To Tools & Equipment.
Heart of Vibrant Creative Community.
Studio access from 7am to 11pm daily.
You can check out our Health & Safety Guidelines here.

As a Mart Member you’d have access to all of our COMMUNITY EVENTS. For example in 2017 that included BBQs, SMART TALKS (our series of industry talks with the VAI and Arts Council among others), Studio Crits and Opens Studio evenings

To enquire about MART Studios, please email stephen@mart.ie.

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House Gallery & Studios

46 Rathmines Road Lower, Rathmines, Dublin 6

The twenty studios in MART's House Gallery & Studios are bespoke visual art Studios based in the landmark Georgian Home on the Rathmines Road. With large bright windows, high ceilings, and creative patchwork from years of renovations it really is an inspiring place to work.

Location

Rathmines Road Lower, a busy shopping street in the heart of Dublin 6. Located close to a range of cafes (Farmer Brown’s, 250 Square, Grove Road Cafe, Pot Bellied Pig, Starbucks), bars (Blackbird, The Bowery, Slattery's, Mother Reilly's), restaurants (Manifesto, Hey Donna, Umi), banks (Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, AIB), shops (Artmines art supplies, Fallon & Byrne) and amenities (library, gym, swimming pool). A few minutes walk from the Grand Canal & Portobello Harbour, a beautifully scenic stretch of the city that becomes a buzzing social hub in summer months.

The Building

This former office building has been transformed into a bustling hub of creativity, with a range of open-plan spaces and self-enclosed studios giving a home to a wide range of visual artists, photographers, designers and filmmakers. This four storey building forms part of a terraced row dating back to the 19th century, and has been furnished with a clean modern interior. Secure building with automated, monitored alarm system.

Transport

The House is situated on bus routes 14, 15, 83, 140. Five minutes from Charlemont Luas stop. Twenty minutes walk from Dublin City Centre.

Our Studio Members

Eleanor Lawler

Eleanor Lawler is a performance artist concerned with ideas of social and literal structure. She uses the narrative quality of textiles to investigate, explore and unravel these structures. Performer and part curator, she curates and co-curates LIVESTOCK, a bi-monthly performance event, she has an independent studio practice and feels herself in a unique position as a mature artist. Using her knowledge of textiles, teaching a variety of textiles based classes, she uses her skill sharing as a way of socialising personal narratives and undermining the overwhelming fabric waste generated by the textile industry. Her performance work is increasing interested in investigating how age is performed physically and poetically through movement and most recently movement using water and textiles as metaphors. eleanorlawlerartlover.blogspot.ie

Laura Seed

Laura Seed is a graphic designer from Liverpool who currently resides in Dublin, Ireland. In 2016, she graduated with a BA Honours in Graphic Design from Dublin Institute of Technology. Although she's a recent graduate she's been working with Local Irish Businesses for the past two years whilst completing her degree. She has a love for creative, colourful design that often starts with the sentence "I have this crazy idea...". She has worked among a range of mediums and is up for trying out everything at least once. www.lseeddesigns.com

Paula McGloin

Paula McGloin is a published illustrator, surface pattern designer and coffee lover! She lives and works in the bustling city of Dublin in Ireland. Her vibrant designs are warm and playful with a distinct retro inspired style. Possessing a fascination for ornament and bold colours, she draws her inspiration from nature, everyday life, travel and a love of vintage fabrics. She has worked on a variety of illustration projects, creating unique designs for fabric, packaging, accessories, ceramics, appliqué and stationery collections. Some of her previous clients include Marks & Spencer, Target, Urban Outfitters, Poetry Ireland and Bewley's Ireland. www.paulamcgloin.com

SC Walsh

SC Walsh is a painter and printmaker interested in creating strong compositions. Much of her work, while realist in essence may appear abstract/ semi-abstract.

Matthew Stickland

Having grown up in the city centre, defensive and hostile architectures were a natural part of the environment that surrounded me. It was only when I first tried to engage with a space that had these forms of architecture incorporated into them that I was able to acknowledge them. I wanted to skateboard around the city but it quickly became apparent that a lot of the spaces that I was trying to skateboard in would incorporate defense mechanisms into the spaces design in order to stop any potential for skateboarding. I felt as if this limited the way I could engage with the city. After this I became very aware of where and how the potential of a city is capped. Buildings and public spaces being designed in such a way that their use can be controlled and any activities from skateboarding to rough sleeping to accumulating groups of people can be prevented. This was when I decided that I would like to design my own forms of street furniture to combat the job of the defensive architecture. Offensive architecture. My interest in this subject lies in the idea of an authoritarian view of space around the city. The idea that the space in a city can be controlled but I can also make myself the authority of a space and by physically building my own attachments onto these locations I can give it the functions which I would like to see it have. My work is an investigation into a cities potential for interaction and use. I travel through the city and find locations with hostile or defensive architectures built into them and examine exactly what potential has been taken away from the space through the incorporation of the defensive architecture. By documenting and taking the exact measurements of these different examples of defensive architectures around the city I am then able to design and build using various basic mixed mediums such as wood and steel, my own forms of architecture which slot into or cover over these spaces and combat the job of the defensive architecture. These become my own personal interventions with the city in an attempt to reclaim the potential of these spaces and return their fluidity. These interventions with the city are then documented through a combination of film and digital photography to display the functionality of my intervention with the city and its defensive architectures.

Derek Fitzpatrick

Derek Fitzpatrick is a Dublin-born artist and graduated from DIT with a Degree in Fine Art. He has showcased his work in a range of private and public collections including in Villa Tittoni in Milan, Office of Public Works, Dublin and various art centers and galleries around Ireland. Fitzpatrick’s work aims to provide insight into the human condition and what it means to be human and is highly imaginative and intuitive: The paintings do not aim to illustrate a specific reality rather they use the form of ‘landscape’ or ‘figure’ as a vehicle to allow for a looser more subjective exploration of the tactile quality of paint. They do not represent real spaces but rather the work could be seen as an attempt to give the sense of a psychological state. “I am interested in the mediums potential to portray feelings and my paintings sometimes include features which can be identified as belonging Fitzpatrick’s work takes the viewer beyond seeing nature and into an experience more felt then seen. derekfitzpatrick.com

Elizabeth Curran

Elizabeth Curran’s work is laced with old Irish mythology. Tales told through speech and writing in a mystical language incomprehensible to man. This language, written in handmade books is accompanied by drawing and painting in an other worldly approach. The artist’s interest in old Irish heritage, music and folklore plays a strong part in her work which borrows magic from the past to create a foretelling from a different land.

Sean Clarke

Sean Clarke is a Dublin based director and cinematographer. His first love was shooting humanist drama in the short form, an interest that has expanded into the realms of music videos and commercial cinematography. Always keen to explore new projects and collaborate, he can be reached at seanclarkefilm.com.

Owen Costello

Owen Costello is a Dublin based director, cinematographer and editor. His love of producing all things visual has led him down the paths of music television with JBTV Chicago, narrative drama, music video production and commercial cinematography. For more info reach out to him at owencostellofilm@gmail.com.

Ali Waked

A social business experiment using the profits and market establishment from its productions to enable purposeful commerce of indigenous artisanship and heritage. Incausa partners with Indigenous cause initiatives developing non-profit trade posts and market placement. Using social entrepreneurship to reignite indigenous heritage, Incausa uplifts cultural values and builds sustainable opportunities.

Website: incausa.eu

Instagram: @Incausa.eu

Facebook: @incausa.eu