Happy New Year from the Board and Staff at CCA

As we enter the new year we are reflecting upon 2019 and we would like to thank all of our visitors, artists, everyone we have worked with, partners, funders, supporters, CCA’s Board of Trustees and our volunteers. Over the past year we had the pleasure of hosting exhibitions and events that could not have been possible without all of you and we look forward to welcoming you to CCA Derry~Londonderry in 2020.

A brief look back:

In January 2019 we had Urgencies, a group show selected from an Open Call for emerging artists with a connection to our region. The show presented work by ten artists dealing with urgent topics from the housing crisis to pollution, bodily autonomy and consumerism. In March, CCA opened Celebration Factory by Filip Markiewicz – the artist’s response to the new socio-political paradigm in Europe and featured the Open Stage. (Celebration Factory is now on show at Kunsthall Osnabrück until 2 February 2020) Following on was Fast Slow Fast including a coal dust map by Catriona Leahy, Midsummer Shadow Dial drawings across the city by Joan Alexander and a takeover of an empty shop in the Richmond Centre by Darren Nixon.

CCA entered autumn with Haerfest – taking its name from the Old English word for the harvest season. This exhibition brought together four artists working with ideas around agriculture, trade and the politics of produce. Alongside Haerfest, Eimear Walshe‘s An Exaltation of St. Joseph performance lecture took place atop a car parked in Artillery Street. Other Public Programme events during the year included a screening of Bisbee ‘17, talk about the Hungarian art context by Eszter Szakács and mountains became sandcastles with Katie Paterson’s project on Portstewart Strand. We were proud to partner with the Rainbow Project’s Journey project for Foyle Pride and The Company of Others – a project bringing together artists and experimental archeologists from UCD working with the historical Guilds of the city.

CCA ended the year with Escape Sequence by Robin Price with its cat rave, glowing ping pong and three nights of drawing with lasers on our façade as part of Derry Halloween’s Awakening the Walls.

Thank you all again for being a part of our 2019 and here’s to 2020!

The Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry is funded by Arts Council for Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council and sponsors The Sandwich Co., Caldwell & Robinson with project funding from FOCUNA, Department of Communities. CCA is a member of the Plus Tate Network.