Fingal County Council announces the recipient of The RHA School Studio Award 2024
Fingal Arts Office in partnership with the Royal Hibernian Academy School (RHA) are delighted to announce Eileen Leonard Sealy, an emerging Visual Artist from Howth, as the recipient of the 2024 Fingal County Council and RHA School Studio Award.
This prestigious award provides a funded studio space for the period of one year and offers the recipient an opportunity to develop their practice within the institutional framework of the RHA.
Sarah O’Neill, Fingal County Arts Officer, is pleased to announce Eileen Leonard Sealy as the recipient of the Studio Award in collaboration with the RHA School, stating, “this award, which is closely aligned with the goals of the Arts Plan 2019 – 2025, reflects Fingal County Council’s ongoing commitment to nurturing artistic talent within our community. We eagerly look forward to supporting Eileen’s artistic journey and are excited to see the innovative work she will produce throughout her residency at the RHA.”
When asked about the award Eileen Leonard Sealy said, “this opportunity could not have come at a better time as I am working towards my first solo exhibition in The Lab Gallery in 2025, and with studio space so hard to come by, it is pivotal support from Fingal and the RHA.”
The RHA was founded in 1823 by a group of artists whose passionate efforts to regenerate art in Ireland evolved exhibition spaces and studios where master artists could take in students under their tutelage.
Today, the RHA School continues to cultivate artistic talent and celebrate art-in-the-making with a lineage of an old-school atelier, crossed with the vibrancy of a contemporary art school.
About the Artist
Eileen Leonard Sealy is an artist living and working in Fingal, graduating from NCAD in 2023 with a Degree in Painting. Having previously worked as artist in residence in a natural burial ground in the Netherlands in 2020 for a five-month period and undertaking a research trip to the highlands of Sulawesi, Indonesia, funded by the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award, Eileen's work strives to create visual narratives that forge similarities between commonly isolating human experiences.
Eileen’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions including the RHA 194th and 193rd Annual Exhibitions (2024, 2023); ‘A Painting Show This Good Friday’, The Dean, Dublin (2024); ‘The ladder is always there’, with Shell/ter collective, Draiocht Gallery (2023); ‘Two women and a child in tears’, a duo show, College Lane Gallery, Dublin and has had work included in Racht, Hermans survey of Irish contemporary art, 2023.
She was shortlisted for the RCSI Award, and the Hennessy Craig Award/Homan Potterton Prize at the RHA, 2024, and she was a recipient of Fingal County Council Artists’ Support Scheme in 2024.
She is currently working towards her first Solo Exhibition at The Lab, Dublin, in 2025.
Image caption: The RHA School Studio Award 2024 recipient, Eileen Sealy