The South East Venues Network SEVN announce artist Chloe Brenan as the recipient of the 2024/2025 SEVN Artist Bursary Award

A native of Carlow, Chloe’s submission was selected by the SEVN committee from over 120 applications which included artists, curators, technicians and producers living and/or working in the South-East region. This was the largest number of applicants to the SEVN Bursary to date.

The €14,000 SEVN bursary awarded to Chloe will allow her to focus on the development of her practice which presently involves the creation of a super 8mm film essay titled The Box is Only Temporary. This new work explores the porosity of bodies - large and small - and their connection to their environments and is set against a back-drop of biodiversity collapse. Focusing on her father’s beehives and their surroundings in rural Carlow, it will look at the vulnerability of the honeybee to environmental pesticides and pollutants whilst drawing connections to language and imagery from literature and science.

Holding a deep understanding and appreciation for the natural landscape and the geographical position of the South-East, Chloe wishes to connect local people with their surrounding environments. Her knowledge and research into local biodiversity illuminates important global topics such as climate change and intertwined issues of social and ecological justice.

The South-East Venue Network (SEVN) was formed in 2019 and provides an informal support network for strengthening arts centre/venue operations and programme development that aims to further support artists and programme delivery in the region.