Author: MarkLeahy

work in The Mountains Are Calling exhibition

I have a visual text / poem included in the World Book Night 2026 exhibition at Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol open from Thursday 2nd April to Friday 31st July 2026. The theme or prompt for the submissions was ‘The Mountains are Calling,’ and artists were asked to send works up to A5 in size, that responded to the prompt. We were also asked for texts or works that could be added to a growing bibliography of ‘mountainish’ texts.

My landscape text is on the right in this image from the installation. (Photo by Marian Kilpatrick) More information can be found here: https://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/wbn2026/

participant in The Cornwall Workshop 2026

I have been selected to be part of the eighth interation of The Cornwall Workshop which will take place from 13 to 20 March 2026 and will be led by Norwegian artist Ane Hjort Guttu, who works in a variety of media but has in recent years mainly concentrated on film and video works, ranging from investigative documentary to poetic fiction.

This workshop aims to look into methodologies of learning and teaching within the arts, the current status of art education, and the processes involved in mentoring, whether of students or of fellow artists.

The Cornwall Workshop is a weeklong intensive residential workshop for artists, curators and writers, organised by CAST and hosted by Kestle Barton on the Lizard peninsula. It provides a space for discussion, debate and the sharing of ideas and encourages critical feedback and collaboration. The list of particpants and their biographies is here.

Opponent for a Public PhD Defence at University of Lapland

On the 16th January I was the Opponent in the public defence by the visual and socially-engaged artist Katja Yuhola, of her PhD project submitted under the title – International Socially Engaged Art Symposium: A Place of Creation, Shared Knowledge, and Conversational Art. Katja pursued her PhD research in the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland, and was supervised by Professor Jaana Erkkilä-Hill.

Katja’s excellent thesis contextualised her symposium series ISEAS that she has led since 2017, supported by a series of published articles, and a solid discussion of the ethics and theories of socially engaged arts practice. We were hosted very well by the University of Lapland in Rovanienmi, and the public defence was well received by the audience and the institution. It was also very exciting to be in a snowy winter landscape in January!