Next up is 2024 BAIS Bursary Prize winner, Killian Beashel (UCL). Killian utilised his bursary to facilitate archival research in Irish art collections:

The research funded by the bursary took place at the Arts Council of Ireland archive in Dublin, the National Irish Visual Arts Library at NCAD, and the Void Art Centre in Derry. The bursary funded extensive archival research, which was conducted at these three locations. At the Arts Council archive I was able to consult the files of Coracle Press, Katie Holten, the Wexford Arts Centre, CIRCA Art Magazine and NIVAL. This helped me uncover the links between small press publishing practices and institutional or governmental financial support. At NIVAL I consulted their Artists Books Collection. This is the premier collection of its kind in Ireland. As my doctoral project looks to trace the history of artists’ book publishing in Ireland, this archive is an essential source for the bulk of my primary materials. Finally, I consulted what remains of the archive of the Orchard Gallery, held by the Void Art Centre. This was very helpful in my prospective research into so-called ‘regional’ art centres in Ireland.

Killian is a PhD student in the Department of English Language and Literature at University College London. His doctoral thesis will present the first systematic literary-historical account of artists’ book publishing in Ireland from the mid-1980s to the present.

Image courtesy of NIVAL