Colleagues from the Array Collective explore trauma at our annual conference

The Array Collective is a group of individual artists rooted in Belfast, who join together to create collaborative actions in response to the socio-political issues affecting Northern Ireland. We look forward to welcoming Stephen Millar, Jane Butler and Méabh Meir from the Array Collective to speak at the Annual Conference on Saturday 5 November.

Stephen Millar

Stephen Millar is an artist, activist and art psychotherapist. Stephen completed his BA (painting) at Ulster University in 2006 and is a HCPC registered art psychotherapist having completed a MSc in Art Psychotherapy, University of East London 2014. Stephen’s practice includes illustration, painting, performance and installation. His work lies somewhere between abstraction and caricature, making use of the interplay between image and language, often to satirical ends. Blending colour and layers to build an arresting narrative, Stephen calls upon his therapeutic background to address unconscious responses to trauma and socialisation in his work. His bleakly comic and often unsettling tone highlights social injustice, and the frictions at play in one’s sense of belonging. 

Jane Butler

Jane Butler is an artist and organiser specialising in public and site-specific projects. Butler’s research-led practice focuses on the experience of trauma and the relationship of body and mind to external environments. Her architectural interventions, installations and photography-based works are informed by elusive memories and neurological effects. Butler received a BA Fine Art (Sculpture) from Ulster University in 2009. She is currently a Co-Director of Household, who work collaboratively with artists, writers, curators and the public to develop thought provoking projects in the public realm. She has been commissioned by organisations in Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, France and most recently Poland, to produce site specific projects.

Méabh Meir

Méabh Meir is a practising art therapist, painter, performance artist, and singer/vocalist from Belfast. Having completed a BA in Painting and Visual Culture Studies at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2010, she went on to develop her painting practice while working in schools before completing a PGCE in Art and Design, Drama, and Moving Image Arts in 2017. Méabh has served on the board of Northern Ireland Group for Art as Therapy (NIGAT) since 2011 and qualified with an MSc in Art Psychotherapy from Ulster University in 2020. Méabh is also a member of traditional vocal music group Landless and teaches traditional singing. In 2021 Méabh was invited by Array Collective to perform a song as part of their winning Turner Prize entry. 

Further links

http://www.arraystudiosbelfast.com/studios.html  

The 2022 Annual Conference will be held on Saturday 5 November 2022 online as a Zoom event. For more information and to book your place, please click here.