Golden Thread Gallery has partnered with the Centre Culturel Irlandais to offer a one-month residency in Paris for a Northern Ireland based visual artist, as part of the CCI’s 2025–26 programme. We are delighted to announce that the selected artist is Paola Bernardelli.

Paola is an Italian lens-based artist living in Derry, Northern Ireland. She describes her work as, “informed by the shifting meaning of the expression ‘taking photographs’ in an image-saturated world.” Her practice stems from a background in photojournalism and documentation. The GTG / CCI visual artist residency includes travel from Ireland, accommodation in Paris and a monthly stipend.

GTG Co-Director Sarah McAvera shares: “We’re so excited to collaborate with the Centre Culturel Irlandais to provide this unique chance for a Northern Ireland artist. It’s all about supporting creative talent from this region and helping artists flourish on an international stage.”

Paola is one of 50 artists who have been awarded residences for the Centre Culturel lrlandais 2025-2026 programme, announced by the Centre today. They said:

“48 artists from Ireland will spend at least one month in Paris to develop projects that reflect the diversity of their interests and origins, ranging from delving into the cannon of Irish Traveller traditional songs, raising awareness of interconnected struggles for spatial and socioeconomic justice, research around the popular Renault 4 car and its connections with Irish and French industrious landscapes, to developing a live dance performance ‘Rebellious Hope’. There is also significant linguistic diversity, with six artists working through the medium of the Irish language.

The CCI Residency Programme is funded by an annual grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs. We also work with partner organisations in Ireland that co-fund or fully fund artist residencies.

This year sees CCI partnering some 24 organisations: Music Network, Contemporary Music Centre (CMC), Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA), Harp Ireland, Screen Composers Guild of Ireland, Cartoon Saloon, Irish Architecture Foundation, Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, Print Network Ireland (partnership of 4 printmaking studios), Golden Thread Gallery, Literature Ireland, Poetry Ireland, Abbey Theatre, Drafocht, Ealafn na Gaeltachta, Meath Arts Office, Cork County Arts Office, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Arts Office, Leitrim County Council, Wexford Arts Office, NUI Maynooth.”

The full list of recipients is:

MUSIC

Cormac Begley

Éna Brennan – Contemporary Music Centre (CMC)

Peter Browne

Niamh Bury

Niamh Dunne

Francis Heery – Contemporary Music Centre (CMC)

Eilís Lavelle – Harp Ireland

Peadar-Tom Mercier – Ealaín na Gaeltachta

Doireann Ni Ghlacáin – Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA)

Daithí O Dronai

Die Hexen – Screen Composers Guild of Ireland

Niall Vallely – Music Network

Rebecca Warren – Wexford Arts Office

PERFORMING ARTS

Philip Connaughton

Barry Fitzgerald

Noeline Kavanagh

Julie Kelleher – Abbey Theatre

Niamh Lawlor – Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Arts Office

Chris Moran

Favour Odusola – Draiocht

Mufutau Yusuf – Meath Arts Office

FILM

Paul Duane

Dermot Flynn – Cartoon Saloon

Ciara Nic Chormaic – Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Arts Office

Julie Weber

LITERATURE

Martin Doyle

James Harpur – Cork County Arts Office

Neil Hegarty

Leeanne Quinn – Poetry Ireland

Cristín Leach

Aifric MacAodha

Gail McConnell – Literature Ireland

Henrietta McKervey

Ciara Ní É – Maynooth University

Nathan O’Donnell

Kit de Waal

ARCHITECTURE

Loay E.A. Dieck – Irish Architecture Foundation

James Martin – Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland

VISUAL ARTS

Paola Bernardelli – Golden Thread Gallery

Leon Butler

Leah Hewson

Helen Hughes

Shiro Masuyama – Tomi Ungerer Residency

Darran McCrann (Darn Thorn) – Leitrim County Council

Noelle Noonan & Catherine Hehir – Print Network Ireland

Niamh O’Malley

Liliane Puthod

CREATIVE PRODUCTION

Ciaran Gaffney

Romilly Walton Masters Residency for Experimental Performance supported by the Walton Masters Family, the CCI and Dublin Fringe Festival

A residency has been awarded to Marty Breen, with collaboration from movement director Charlotte O’Reilly, to develop HAUNT, a docu-style participatory theatre piece based on Intimacy Co-Ordination principles, inspired by recent high-profile Irish and French assault cases. ‘La honte, ce n’est pas a nous de l’avoir, c’est a eux’.

Old Library and Historical Archives Research Fellowship Supported by the CCI

A Fellowship Bursary has been awarded to Irene O’Daly (University of Leyde, Holland) to conduct a study entitled « Lines, Lineages, and Legitimacy» looking at one of our Old Library treasures, the illuminated manuscript« World chronicle with the Descent of the Kings of England from Adam and Eve to Richard Ill » dating from 1500.

For further information:

Rosetta Beaugendre, Head of Communications and Public Relations

rbeaugendremicentreculturelirlandais.com

00 33 6 27 87 31 05

Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue de lrlandais, 75005 Paris, France

Golden Thread Gallery is supported by: