CCA Derry~Londonderry

06/09/2026

In the news! 🗞️

The DCSDC Associate Artist programme has launched. Check CCADLD.org/News for more information on how to apply.

Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Arts and Culture Co‑Delivery Group has launched a new Associate Artists Pilot Programme, supporting stronger, more purposeful collaboration between cultural organisations and individual artists whose work aligns with each organisation’s ethos.

03/09/2026

📢 Submissions now open: DCSDC ASSOCIATE ARTIST 📢
Deadline: 1 October 2026, 23:59pm
🔗 More information on how to apply find the link in our bio and at CCADLD.org

CCA is running a pilot Associate Artist programme for an artist in the Derry City & Strabane District area.

CCA is seeking an emerging (or re-emerging) Associate Artist from Derry City & Strabane District to spend three months developing their practice supported by CCA. This will take form of three dedicated mentoring sessions with CCA’s Director, 24/7 access to use CCA’s Project Space for a month, profile on CCA’s website and social media. Their time in the Project Space will support the development of their practice, with access to CCA’s passing audiences on Artillery Street. The space may be used as a living studio, to remix existing work, to create a fully new installation – it will be self-directed in conversation with CCA’s Director – all aimed at experimentation and the development of the artist’s practice, confidence, skills and profile.

➡️ Find out more and apply via the link in our bio.

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The DCSDC Associate Artist programme is supported by Derry City & Strabane District Council. CCA is supported by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council, Garfield Weston Foundation.

📸 Janie Doherty & Locky Morris, ‘nothing (but windows)’ (film still), 2021

27/08/2026

🔄 RECAP Q***r Archives Writing Workshop
📍In Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin on Saturday 22 August 2026, as part of Foyle Pride Festival.

✍️Where did our stories go? with writer and activist Séadgh Donohue.
📚 Participants leafed through accounts of q***r existence and activism in books, pamphlets and photos found in the Rainbow Project in Derry, the Linen Hall Library in Belfast and beyond. Séadgh provided the group with writing prompts to use alongside the archival material.

🌈Thank you to Séadgh for providing the archival materials and delivering this workshop for Foyle Pride. Thank you to Foyle Pride for the support to be part of the festival's programme.

***rArchives

ℹ️ Stay tuned for details on our public programme events for the remainder of 2026. If you’re not currently subscribed to our newsletter, why not register today, and be the first to hear about what’s coming up? You can register on our website at www.ccadld.org

25/08/2026

🔄 RECAP Summer Family Activity

✨ Summer Family Art. A big messy clay event with artist

🏺Our young artists traveled back in time through clay and imagination.
⭕️ After an introduction to the exhibition We explored ancient shapes and sounds in our welcome circle.
💭 Imagined stories behind ancient stone circles and wedge tombs.
🗿 Sculpted "mini monuments" and mysterious clay artefacts.
🐚 Pressed patterns into the clay using sticks, shells, and fingertips, to leave a trace.
🤝 Built a collaborative "future stone circle" together.
👂 Listened closely to imagine the sounds of our new creations inspired by the exhibition’s sound works.

Every participant named their masterpiece and took it home to keep!

Thank you to all the families who came out to get creative and leave their trace. 🎨✨



ℹ️ Stay tuned for details on our public programme events for the remainder of 2026. If you’re not currently subscribed to our newsletter, why not register today, and be the first to hear about what’s coming up? You can register on our website at www.ccadld.or

21/08/2026

🔄 RECAP
📍Old Library Trust, Creggan

A look at our Relief Print Workshop with artist Gráinne McMenamin 🎨

As part of Féile Derry 2026, Gráinne led a hands-on session at the Old Library Trust in Creggan. The workshop was attended by The Creggan Artists and members of the public.
Participants learned essential relief printing techniques and hand-printed their own designs. Everyone got to create unique art prints, greeting cards, and tote bags.

Thank you to Gráinne for leading the session and to everyone who participated.

Many thanks to Derry Féile for supporting this workshop.

📸 Check out some of the images from the day.



ℹ️ Stay tuned for details on our public programme of events for the rest of 2026. If you’re not currently subscribed to our newsletter, why not register today, and be the first to hear about what’s coming up? You can register on our website at www.ccadld.org

13/08/2026

🎧 In Conversation: Christopher Steenson & Brian Lacey now available online!

On the occasion of ‘All I see is the present’, CCA Derry~Londonderry hosted an In Conversation between Artist Christopher Steenson and Historian Dr Brian Lacey moderated by CCA Director Catherine Hemelryk. The conversation took place on Saturday 20 June 2026 as part of Heritage Month across Derry City & Strabane District.

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Listen in by following the link in our bio, on CCA’s YouTube channel and by searching for CCA Derry~Londonderry across all good podcast platforms.

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All I see is the present is supported by:

CCA Derry~Londonderry, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Arts Council of Ireland, The Elephant Trust, Northern Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive.

07/08/2026

⛔️ CCA will be closed on Saturday 8 August 2026 due to the apprentice boys march.

We will be back open as usual from Tuesday, noon–6pm, Tuesday–Saturday.

While we are closed you can visit our online projects CCADLD.org and takeover archives here . You can also listen to our Round Table Podcasts and audio artworks by following the link in our bio 🔗 (new episode coming soon!)

08/07/2026

🥛CCA Ulster University Graduate Support Award: Áine Crawford
🗓️ 7 July–7 August 2026
📍 Project Space, CCA Derry~Londonderry

Áine Crawford is the BA recipient of the 2026 CCA Ulster University Graduate Support Award. The Award consists of the opportunity to use CCA’s Project Space, stipend and mentoring with CCA Director Catherine Hemelryk.

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Áine Crawford is the BA award recipient. Their practice explores moments in the everyday and mundane where the abject body is at a threshold, caught in jeopardy physically, mentally, or through sensory inputs. A foundation of this practice is an interest in storytelling and worldbuilding, which they develop through drawings described as “my ladies” existing within their void, liminal world that parallels our own. In the face of rapidly increasing femicide and domestic violence statistics in a post-conflict North of Ireland, their ladies act as narrators to explore how misogyny and surveillance directly impact female presenting bodies within the domestic sphere.

Áine aims to consider how, within systems of injustice, there can be a voyeuristic expectation for the ordinary person to silently observe or dismiss pain and suffering of others/self to benefit authoritative figures, especially within online algorithms. They are interested in positions of authority and the complexities involved in being a witness.

They have previously been a Co-Director at Platform Arts, Belfast and have appeared in group exhibitions at Vault, Belfast, University of Manchester and performed at Belfast International Festival of Performance Art at PS2 in 2026.

During their time in CCA’s Project Space, they will be developing new work and engaging with the artists and initiatives around the city.wellyboots

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Supported by Ulster University. CCA is supported by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council and Garfield Weston Foundation.

07/07/2026

👋🏻 We are waving goodbye and all the best to Amber McLaughlin who has been with CCA for the last six months as our Gallery Assistant through the JobStart scheme.

We are sad to see Amber go as the JobStart scheme comes to a close but pleased she will be joining our pool of ad hoc freelancers and we look forward to seeing her back at CCA in the future! Amber, you’ve been brilliant!

In the photo: Laura McCafferty (Public Programmes Curator), Christian Donaghey (Gallery Administrator), Amber McLaughlin (Gallery Assistant JobStart), Vanessa Marsh (Marketing Coordinator), Catherine Hemelryk (Director).

01/07/2026

🌝 PROJECT SPACE: Domnall Starkie
🗓️ 22 June – 4 July 2026
📍 10-12 Artillery Street

Domnall Starkie is an artist and designer from Derry whose practice focuses on sustainable materials, upcycled processes and making environmentally conscious work. Having received Immersive Arts UK (Explore) funding, he has been able to bring that material‑led practice into developing sculptural elements for an immersive experience that uses gentle sensory technology.

Domnall is spending a focused week working in the Project Space as a studio at CCA Derry~Londonderry, developing new non‑toxic, upcycled paper‑clay seating forms and immersive sculptural components for the project. I’m hoping to recreate the kinds of sensory experiences we get in nature — gentle light, ambient sound, organic forms and tactile surfaces — in a way that can offer people uplift, novelty and cognitive ease. This phase of the work explores how sensory cues and biomorphic forms can support accessibility, inclusivity and environmental responsibility. Working in the Project Space is giving him the space to focus fully on making and testing ideas in a studio environment; he is refining seating prototypes, experiment with sustainable material blends, and shape components for an immersive installation centred on wellbeing.

Supported by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council, Garfield Weston Foundation and Immersive Arts UK (Explore).