Museum of Everyone at IMMA and Galway Arts Center
Overview
https://imma.ie/artists/museum-of-everyone
The Museum of Everyone (MOE) is an inclusive portable platform for artists and creatives that aims to amplify a diverse range of voices and perspectives through both artist and community-led initiatives. MOE problematizes the role traditional museums play in perpetuating colonial values. It acknowledges that a ‘business as usual’ policy in historic institutions is an act of compliance that had tears to the archaic legacy of western ideals.
With this in mind, MOE aims to engage with artists whose practice engages in social or political activism, marginalized groups and the public by developing an active platform for creativity, discourse, collaboration and action. MOE’s ethos is to center the stories of its participants and developing projects that support community and forge change.
Museum of Everyone, Communal – The Art of Coexistence (Pilot Project)
Dublin city is defined by a multicultural population, but how often do these diverse cultures collide? How often do we venture outside the familiarity of our communities to experience the culture, heritage, and spirituality of the people we coexist with? Is there potential for us to build authentic connections through art? How can art empower communities and drive integration?
As capitalistic powers continue to degrade our cities’ cultural epicentres and anthropocentric realities fracture our natural landscapes is there solace to be found in defining new creative spaces for communality?
As biopolitical tensions see our own and other European governments seeking to ghettoize particular communities fleeing conflict, can we operate a creative space that defies these policies, and seek to integrate pre-existing and new communities?
MOE – Communal is a platform for open discussion on themes of biopolitics, multiculturalism, conflict resolution, colonial legacies, xenophobia, racism, transphobia, homophobia, spatial politics and embodied democracy.
Through its residency at IMMA MOE – Communal will facilitate a series of workshops, talks, public-facing events, communal meals headed by its core artists and researchers – Éireann and I’s curator and researcher Beulah Ezeugo and cultural producer Joselle Ntumba, Irish-Iraqi multidisciplinary artist Basil Al-Rawi, Indian visual artist and filmmaker Pradeep Mahadeshwar, MOE writer in residence Sandrine Uwase Ndahiro, Swedish visual artist Ella Bertilsson, Romanian visual artist and researcher Istvan Laszlo, Irish multidisciplinary visual artist Alan Phelan, Irish visual artist and educator Sarah Edmondson, Brazilian interdisciplinary artist Thaís Muniz and lead artist and curator Brendan Fox.
MOE Workshop at IMMA – May 20, 2023
As part of the Museum of Everyone’s project, Communal – The Art of Coexistence, I facilitated a workshop at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) on May 20, 2023. This session focused on themes of migration, immigration status, racial politics, and their impact on artistic practice.
Held at Studio 14 in the IMMA Residency, the workshop explored how adopting a new culture shapes identity, artistic infrastructure, and creative expression. Participants engaged in discussions, shared their experiences, and reflected on how their art practice intersects with their lived realities.
The workshop encouraged active participation, with attendees bringing questions about their practice to discuss with the group. Optional sharing of artworks—whether visual, written, or musical—allowed for deeper artistic exchange. Parts of the session were documented through photos and videos for archival and social media purposes.
This workshop was an opportunity to foster dialogue, build connections, and create a space for underrepresented voices to be heard within Ireland’s artistic landscape.
