Professor Sarah Glennie ∙ Director

NCAD WORKS 2024 provides a portal to the full breadth of work by our extraordinary graduates from across our four schools of Fine Art, Design, Education, and Visual Culture and encompasses students graduating from our broad range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and CEAD programmes. 

Collectively, our graduates represent Ireland’s creative future, and they each hold great potential to play a dynamic and impactful role in the Ireland we face right now. As you will see from this work, our students want to fuel change in a creative and productive way, from how we design our public services to the way we see each other. 

They are emerging into their professional careers at an exciting time as new opportunities emerge in Ireland for creative graduates. The creative sector is one of the fastest growing in the global economy. Ireland’s creative graduates drive our creative and cultural sectors, which currently contribute 3.7% of Gross Added Value to the economy, with room to grow even more.

Our students are fully engaged with the world beyond the NCAD campus, and they continue to demonstrate their ambition and commitment to make work that has impact and meaning to us all in many different ways. The big challenges that face society can be traced across our graduates' work as they apply their creativity to bringing new solutions, critical thinking, and reflection onto issues including sustainability, gender identity and equality, wellbeing, new technologies, and our digital and material futures.  

An education at NCAD is the starting point for generations of bold and curious minds that have made an enormous contribution to society in many different ways. We are confident that this generation is set to continue this extraordinary legacy as they leave us equipped with the imagination, creativity, and critical thinking that will ensure that they make an impact in whatever path they follow. 

So, on behalf of An Bord and all my colleagues at NCAD – congratulations to all our graduating students; we are extremely proud of all that you have achieved, and we look forward to following your creative journeys in the future.

Thomas St Campus

100 Thomas Street
Directions

7–15 June

Fri 7 June 10am–8pm
Sat 8 June 10am–5pm
Sun 9 June 10am–5pm
Mon 10 June 10am–8pm
Tue 11 June 10am–8pm
Wed 12 June 10am–8pm
Thu 13 June 10am–8pm
Fri 14 June 10am–8pm
Sat 15 June 10am–5pm

Courses on show:

BA Fashion
BA Jewellery & Objects
BA Textile & Surface Design
Joint (Hons) Education Design or Fine Art
BA Graphic Design
BA Illustration
BA Moving Image Design
BA Interaction Design
BA Product Design
Applied Materials
Media
Painting
Print
Sculpture & Expanded Practice
MA Design for Body & Environment
MA Communication Design
MA Interaction Design
MSC Medical Device Design
Prof Dip Service Design
BA Visual Culture

The Annex

102–3 James’ Street
Directions

7–15 June

Fri 7 June 10am–8pm
Sat 8 June 10am–5pm
Sun 9 June 10am–5pm
Mon 10 June 10am–8pm
Tue 11 June 10am–8pm
Wed 12 June 10am–8pm
Thu 13 June 10am–8pm
Fri 14 June 10am–8pm
Sat 15 June 10am–5pm

Courses on show:

MFA in Fine Art
MFA Art in the Contemporary World

Grace Gifford House

John St W
Directions

7–15 June

Fri 7 June 10am–8pm
Sat 8 June 10am–5pm
Sun 9 June 10am–5pm
Mon 10 June 10am–8pm
Tue 11 June 10am–8pm
Wed 12 June 10am–8pm
Thu 13 June 10am–8pm
Fri 14 June 10am–8pm
Sat 15 June 10am–5pm

Courses on show:

Media

Emma Brennan

she/her

Taking Shape

‘Taking Shape’ is the result of a collaboration between Emma Brennan and Fatima Homework Club, informed by a two year long and continuing residency. The work explores themes of childhood literacy and how a socially-engaged, collaborative arts practice can aid in attaining it, particularly in the context of marginalised communities.

The persistent systemic inequalities of education, combined with the aftermath of the online learning period, have forced the artists to acknowledge that attaining childhood literacy is a very current and hidden struggle, which deserves highlighting.

The visual and educational foundation of the work is built on the under-utilised literacy tools known as ‘Pre-Writing Shapes’. These nine shapes are pivotal towards letter formation; wherein a child’s familiarity with drawing them is linked to their writing abilities. The integration of Pre-Writing Shapes into a series of playful workshops investigates the positive effects of creative processes on literacy comprehension.

Research