Board Of Directors

Johnny Bugler

Board of Director

Johnny Bugler is an artist and primary school teacher. He studied at Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork and received a Masters in fine-art printmaking from Camberwell College of Art in London. He has exhibited internationally and is the recipient of Arts Council awards in travel and training and for further study. In 2015 he won the commission launched by Cork City Council Arts Office that resulted in the public artwork Singers Corner. The mural was selected by writer Doireann Ní Gríofá for a reflective piece published in paper Visual journal. In 2018 his work was acquired for the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. Johnny was previously Studio Manager at Cork Printmakers where he also served on the Board of Wandesford Quay Holding Company.

Ciara Rodgers

Board of Director

Ciara Rodgers is a visual artist and academic based in Cork City, Ireland. A four year studio licence holder at Backwater Artists Group, she holds an MA in Art from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design, 2018.

Exhibitions include: Folly|Façade (Solo) GOMA Waterford, IE, 2024; GREEN MOUTH (Solo) performance, SIRIUS, Cork, IE, 2023; Come What May, LIVESTOCK, MART, Dublin, IE, 2023; a city of beautiful nonsense (Solo), Studio 12, Cork IE; ARTSevilla 2019|Bauhaus: a 100 años de la revolución total de un lenguaje, Seville, ES, 2019.

Ciara is a lecturer in Art History and Studio modules at SETU Visual Art Department, Waterford City.

Laurie Uprichard

Board of Director

Executive Artistic Director of Dance Cork Firkin Crane in Cork, Ireland since September 2021, Laurie Uprichard was previously Director & Curator of Performing Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. She has also worked with Stephen Petronio Company, Tere O’Connor Dance, and Quaternaire, a production and tour management agency based in Paris, France. She founded and curated the Travelogues Series at Abrons Arts Center in 2015-16 and simultaneously worked with The Joyce Theater. Laurie served as Director of the Dublin Dance Festival from 2007-2011, overseeing its transition to an annual event and expanding its international visibility, audience outreach, and support of the local dance community. From 1992-2007, she was Executive Director of Danspace Project in New York City, a period of significant growth for this venue based in the historic St. Mark’s Church. She worked with Urban Bush Women from 1991-96 and, from 1984-1991, was associated with Dance Theater
Workshop.
Laurie Uprichard was a member of the Board of Directors of Danspace Project from 2007-2016; has twice served on the Board of Dance/USA, chairing its Presenters Council from 2002-2004; and has served as a board member of Movement Research. She is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in the French Ministry of Culture and has received a New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Angel Award (2019) and a 2008 Bessie for her service to the field. She has also been honored by Movement Research, Danspace Project, and La MaMa E.T.C. Laurie holds an M.B.A. from The American University.

Declan Jordan

Board of Director

Declan Jordan is Vice Dean for Graduate Studies and Senior Lecturer in Economics at Cork University Business School. Declan's research interests include regional and urban economics, business innovation, regional development and competitiveness, sustainable mobility and climate action, and sports economics. He has published widely in these areas in international peer reviewed journals. He is a regular contributor on economic issues to national and international media, including newspaper, radio, and television outlets. Prior to joining UCC, Declangained substantial management and corporate experience, as Manager, Consulting with the leading Irish treasury and financial consulting firm in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and as Treasury Manager with Intel Ireland.

Deborah Oniah

Board of Director

Deborah Oniah is a mother of four and a Graduate of Law in her home country, Nigeria. She is a University College Cork Sanctuary Scholar with a Postgraduate Diploma in Trauma Studies. An important voice for the migrant community in Ireland, Deborah is trained in and facilitates intercultural dialogue. She is a member of Sanctuary Runners and Saoirse Ethnic Hands On Deck, a registered social enterprise project run by migrant women living in Direct Provision Centres in Cork. She is now studying Global Youth Work and Development at University of Maynooth, Kildare.

Aoife Claffey

Board of Director

Aoife Claffey is an installation artist from Cork. Her work explores human sensory perception in provisional spaces and creates installations combining projection film, printmaking, found objects and sound. Physiological and psychological tensions between chaos and order are encouraged during the making and within the work, to evoke immersive uncanny effects and altered cognitive states.

She received First Class Honours in both her MA in Art and Process in 2020 and BA in Fine Art in 2019 from CCAD. She is a member of Sample Studios and Cork Printmakers. Her first solo show was ‘Mystical Confessions’ in St Lukes, Cork (2021). Other exhibitions include a solo exhibition ‘8’ in Cork Airport (2021) and internationally at Pada Gallery Lisbon (2022) and Sluice London, IMT Gallery London (2022).

She is part of the artist collective Inter_Site and has exhibited with them in the Marina Market, The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Queens Old Castle and Spike Island Cork in 2021, for which they received The Arts Council Project Funding. Inter_site will exhibit in Pallas Projects in October 2023. She received The Arts Council Agility Award (2021/2022) and was long listed for the RDS Award (2021). Her work is in the collection of Eli Lilly and has been featured in Bloomers Magazine #07: Emerging Female Artists.