New director at Cork's National Sculpture Factory hopes to forge more ties with international community 

There is a saying that ‘All roads lead to Rome’, but for visual arts curator Helen Carey, ‘All roads lead to Cork’.

Helen was recently appointed Director of the National Sculpture Factory, and is this week beginning her new role on Leeside.

The visual arts curator previously served as Director/Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art, the inaugural Director of the flagship Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, Public Art Project Manager at Bristol Regeneration Project, and Director of Galway Arts Centre.

Most recently, she worked as Director of the Fire Station Artists’ studios in Dublin, where she had been based since 2014.

Helen will now be based at the National Sculpture Factory’s long red-brick building on Albert Road, Ballintemple.

The building provides the necessary space and equipment to artists and sculptors to create work which they could not do in smaller spaces or at their kitchen tables, making it a vital resource not only for the creative community of Cork but for the whole of Ireland.

The studio spaces are allocated on a project basis within the walls of the Factory, which is 770 square metres in size.

There are currently 14 artists based at the world-class facilities.

Helen sees the artistic tapestry of Cork as being part of the natural ecosystem where each region has its own distinct activity providing creative flavour to the whole.

“I’ve always been very aware of Cork and how many richly talented artists come from here, in fact the first exhibition I was responsible for when I started in Galway was Cork artist Vivienne Roche, who was actually one of the founders of the Sculpture Factory,” she recalled.

As well as being a founder member and first chairperson of The Sculpture Factory, Vivienne is a member of Aosdána and The Royal Hibernian Academy and works in large-scale bronze glass, steel and sailcloth amongst other materials.

Among her many and varied works is ‘Light Ensemble’ at MTU Cork School of Music which is an award-winning work, consisting of three large site-specific pieces, a sculptural homage to architecture, music and time.

“It’s also fantastic to witness the trajectory of many other really strong and talented Cork artists such as Aideen Barry,” said Helen.

She is hyper-aware of the importance of public art to the lifeblood of a city.

Public art commemorates events and places where local communities gather to celebrate and reflect on a significant moment in their history or to recall loved ones no longer here.

One such sculpture is the memorial to those lost to heroin addiction entitled ‘Home’ which depicts a flame of hope behind a doorway at the junction of Buckingham Street and Séan McDermott street, which is close to the Fire Station Artists’ Studio in Dublin where Helen was based up to now.

She outlines the significance of such monuments for people to gather and express their emotions.

“The local community gather there to their loved ones who have been lost to the ravages of drugs.

“People should feel at ease with their city, and artistic expressions should serve to embellish urban life, making it more relatable and unique.

“I am very much committed to public art and in a previous life I was the Public Arts Project Manager for the landmark millennium project in Bristol’s city centre, which was really enjoyable,” she said.

Helen was educated at Loreto Convent in Navan and then she went on to study in UCD. She also later graduated from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire as well as directing many projects, galleries and art centres, including the Limerick City Gallery of Art.

Helen was also a representative of the Department of Foreign Affairs on the Choctaw–Irish Public Art Commission in 2024 which saw her going to Oklahoma to further commemorate the link forged between the Irish and the Choctaw nation, an experience which she really enjoyed.

“Cork artist Alex Pentek’s work ‘Kindred Spirits’, which was made at the Sculpture Factory, and now stands in Bailick Park in Midelton, was a real turning point in forging that link between the Choctaw and the Irish connection, and opened up a huge channel of engagement,” Helen said.

It commemorates the generous donation of the Choctaw people, themselves decimated after their forced removal from their ancestral lands in what was called the ‘Trail of Tears’. Despite the hardship they were enduring, they still managed to gather a donation of $170 to help the Irish during the Famine.

“I had to oversee the selection and development of a Choctaw artist, who would create a sculpture that would continue on that connection, which remains a really interesting and time-defying link across the centuries.

“You really learn a lot when you are engaged with people in their creative process making and developing work, and it was fascinating to spend time with the Choctaw people.

“I was so struck with how composed and silent their conversation can be. You really have to take it in, and it’s a great antidote to rushing around. It was very interesting to witness how it can be sometimes more important to listen rather than talk.”

The ‘Eternal Heart’ sculpture was designed to honour the eternal bond forged between the two nations.

The sculpture, an 8ft tall piece by Choctaw nation tribal member Samuel Stitt, was tly funded by the Government of Ireland and the Chahta Foundation.

It combines a Celtic Trinity Shape intertwined with a heart and is specifically placed facing toward Ireland at the Choctaw Capitol Grounds in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma.

“There is no beginning or end to the overall piece – thus it is eternal,” said the creator Stitt.

Helen’s reach with the worldwide artistic and creative community is wide and in her future role as Director of The Sculpture Factory, she hopes to forge even more strands with the international community to build connections and visibility for Irish artists.