Shortlisted for Allianz Business2Arts Award

Baron’s Self Storage, Tuam Road, Galway, has been shortlisted for a Business2Arts award for its role in facilitating Interim, a large art exhibition held during the Tulca Season of Visual Arts last autumn.

The self storage facility is one of four nominees in the category “Best Collaboration with a Small Business”. Interim, curated by Ben Roosevelt and Emma Houlihan, converted Barons into a “holding station for contemporary art”, exhibiting art throughout the 100,000 sq. foot premises. 17 artists from Ireland, America, and France contributed to the event, which garnered both local and national acclaim.

The Business2Arts prizes will be awarded on the 31st of May in Dublin’s Mansion House. The Minister for Arts, Sport, and Tourism John O’Donoghue will be present to distribute the awards.

The co-curators of Interim will be engaged in Galway in the coming months. Roosevelt, a recent graduate of the Burren College of Art’s Master of Fine Arts programme, will be presenting a solo exhibition in the Ard Bia art space later this summer.

Houlihan, studying fine art at NCAD, will be continuing her piece “Special Offer”, which she began at Interim, throughout this summer. For “Special Offer” Houlihan brought more than 100 personal possessions to Barons Self-Storage. She photographed and boxed each item, while compiling a catalogue that described each items value her life. Audience members were invited to take home an item on condition they agree to a meeting with Houlihan in the future. Houlihan will be visiting participants in and around Galway in the coming months with the intention of compiling a second catalogue later this year.