Street art scheme in the mix for awards

One of the most eye-cateching arts schemes of recent years has been shortlisted for the prestigious Business to Arts Awards.

Pat McDonnell Paints and Ardú Street Art Ltd have been shortlisted in the Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice category (supported by TileStyle) for Ardú Street Art Project.

The Business to Arts Awards recognise excellence in creative partnerships, where a business, philanthropic organisation, or individual has supported the arts in an outstanding or compelling way.

Running for over 30 years, the awards is a flagship event on the corporate-cultural calendar. The awards feature a range of categories that celebrate arts sponsorship, commissioning, philanthropy, staff engagement programmes, corporate social responsibility, access programmes, creative community initiatives, and more.

Ardú was born in Leeside during lockdown of October 2020, originally bringing seven of Ireland’s most respected and renowned street artists - Deirdre Breen, Maser, James Earley, Peter Martin, Shane O’Driscoll, Aches, and Garreth Joyce - to create large scale murals at key Cork city-centre locations.

Thanks to phenomenal community engagement and support, the event returned in 2021 with four more walls unveiled by Shane O’Malley, Friz, Conor Harrington, and Asbestos. And again in 2022, with artists Claire Prouvost, Kitsune Jolene, and VENTS137.

These fourteen inspiring pieces of work dotted across the city add greatly to the cultural landscape of the city centre. They’ve spurred conversations on the ground, shared widely across online platforms, and been praised internationally in the likes of Travel US Magazine, and Brooklyn Street Art.

Ardú Street Art Project is the brainchild of visual artist and designer Shane O’Driscoll, muralist, stained-glass artist and secondary school teacher Peter Martin, and organiser of the annual Cork Graffiti Jam, Paul Gleeson. It is project managed by Rose-Anne Kidney of Goldiefish Events and made possible with generous support from Cork City Council and Creative Ireland.

Rose-Anne Kidney, Project Manager of Ardú said: “Ardú are delighted to have been shortlisted in the Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice category this year, we are a proud team who have enjoyed curating an ambitious catalogue of striking art works throughout Cork City since 2020 and look forward to continuing this work with the support of Pat Mc Donnell Paints in Cork.”

Bernadette Boyle, Pat McDonnell Paints added: “We are proud to be in a position to play a part sharing in, and supporting, the Ardú vision of transforming previously anonymous corners of Cork City into truly memorable encounters.”

The Business to Arts Awards take place on Tuesday 12 September in the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Ardú will return to Cork in autumn 2023.