Fingal County Council Arts Office in partnership with the Royal Hibernian Academy is pleased to announce Fingal artist Aideen Farrell as the recipient of the RHA school studio residency 2026/2028.
This prestigious award provides one professional artist with a funded studio space in the RHA for two years beginning at the end of October 2026. Exact dates to be confirmed. This award is open to professional practising artists at all career stages working in Visual Art. This year marks the first year of the residency's extension to two years.
The RHA School is a purpose-built facility within the RHA Gallery, consisting of individual studios, open-plan drawing studios and a library. It is an artist-led space for the provision of skill-based learning in Visual Art. Central to the RHA School’s activity is peer learning, where knowledge and experience can be passed from artist to artist. The RHA School supports both traditional and contemporary approaches to art making, and its offerings aim to enhance the skill set of artists working in the varied and shifting arena of current art practice.
Fingal Arts Officer Sarah O'Neill said, "We are delighted to have Aideen in the RHA Studio for 2026-2028. This is the first year this award has been extended to a two-year residency. We are sure this time will allow the artists to fully immerse themselves in their practice."
Colin Martin, Head of the RHA School, said, "RHA School and Studios are delighted to announce that Aideen Farrell is the recipient of the Fingal Arts Studio at the RHA. Farrell works across sculpture and installation with found objects and readymade materiality to create staged infrastructural ruins. Her process involves collecting and assembling these forms into new configurations and spatial assemblages that are sensitive and specific to their site. Farrell will commence a two-year residency in Oct 2026."
Aideen Farrell commented, "I am excited and grateful to receive this Fingal and RHA Studio award. This two-year award will provide me with a secure space to focus on my practice, which will greatly benefit from a longer-term period of research and making. The work I want to make will respond to industrial landscapes and infrastructural ruins, through working with material detritus and traces of routes and stories. I will engage in sculptural processes with found and made materials, allowing for iterative outcomes throughout this residency."
About the artist:
Aideen Farrell is a Dublin-based artist. Traversing disused railways and canals, she gathers found materials to generate sculpture, photography, drawing, and installations that explore ideas of ruin, extraction, and transformation. Farrell has a BA in Fine Art and Visual Culture (NCAD) and an MA in Fine Art (TU Dublin). She has had solo exhibitions at Custom House Gallery (2023), Pallas Projects/Studios (2019), Linenhall Arts Centre (2018), and group exhibitions at Draíocht (2026), A4 Sounds (2025), and the Complex (2024). Awards include: Fingal County Council Artist Support Scheme (2026, 2025); the Arts Council’s Agility Award (2021); Visual Arts Bursary (2021, 2023); and the Fire Station Artists’ Studio Residential Award (2025/26). Later this year, she will undertake an exhibition residency in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre.
