Alan Butler announced as Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at University College Cork

9 Dec 2025

Alan Butler announced as the first Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at University College Cork.

The collaboration between the Arts Council and UCC celebrates diverse artistic voices and practices shaping Ireland’s creative landscape.

University College Cork (UCC) and the Arts Council have announced multi-media artist Alan Butler as the inaugural Digital Artist in Residence.

Alan’s appointment marks the launch of a new digital strand in the Arts Council’s flagship Artists in Residence programme, introduced this year through a pilot residency at University College Cork and two other universities.

The Artists in Residence awards, jointly funded by the Arts Council and UCC, provide artists with dedicated workspaces and finances to develop their work and further Ireland’s vibrant creative scene.

Alan Butler works with traditional and new media as a means to explore subjects and ideas related to digital culture and their role in the formation of realities. With a production modality that utilises materials and media from the history of image-making, the body of work often examines how 3D graphics, video game and cloud technologies function both ideologically and politically.

His work has been exhibited at V&A Dundee, UK (2024); transmediale/Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2023); The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2022); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2018 & 2021); Akron Art Museum; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (2019), Transfer, New York; C/O Berlin; FACT, Liverpool (2018); Les Rencontres d'Arles; Malmö Fotobiennal (2017).

As part of the collective ANNEX he represented Ireland at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021.

Alan Butler's work is in the collections of IMMA - the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Office of Public Works, Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland, and Trinity College Dublin, among many others. He is represented by Green On Red Gallery, Ireland and Galerie Conrads, Berlin.

Maura McGrath, Chair of the Arts Council, said: “As Chair of the Arts Council, I am delighted to congratulate the new Artists in Residence across our universities. These programmes support artists to deepen their practice while bringing fresh creative energy into teaching, research and campus life. By connecting students and staff with professional artists, they spark new ideas and show how creativity can enrich every discipline. We are very grateful to our university partners for their ongoing commitment to these residencies.”

Dr Stephen Roddy, UCC School of  English and Digital Humanities and UCC Radical Humanities Laboratory, said: "It's an honour and privilege to host Alan Butler as the inaugural Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at UCC. Alan's vitally essential and widely acclaimed work has been instrumental in establishing a critical, reflexive turn in contemporary digital art practice. We are delighted that he has chosen to share that practice with us here in the School of English and Digital Humanities and know it will deeply enrich research and teaching across the UCC community."

Alan Butler joins Brendan Canty, Arts Council – UCC Film Artist in Residence; Aoife Ní Bhriain, Arts Council – UCC Traditional Artist in Residence; and poet Dean Brown, Arts Council – UCC Writer in Residence.

More on UCC Artists in Residence here: https://www.ucc.ie/en/news/2025/university-college-cork-and-arts-council-announce-2026-artists-in-residence.html