ESW Welcomes New Board Members
Irineu Destourelles, Giulia Gentili and Sekai Machache join the organisation as voluntary trustees in November 2020.
Following an open call in the summer and a period of research where we considered many excellent applications, ESW can announce three new Board Members who will complement the existing board and take over from three departing trustees. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the individuals who applied to join our board for their interest and also for the care they took to consider our organisation.
Destourelles, Gentili and Machache are all artists, with complex interests and a wide range of experience from exhibiting and working in the UK and abroad.
Irineu Rocha da Cruz (AKA Irineu Destourelles) is a visual artist based in Edinburgh. Solo exhibitions include at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow and at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. He is an experienced engagement and learning professional with previous roles at the National Maritime Museum in London; as the Director of M_EIA, a visual arts and design institute, in his native Cape Verde; and within EU funded cultural development projects in West Africa. He received a BA Fine Art from Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, an MA Fine Art at Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London and is currently pursuing a PhD in Film studies at UCL, London.
Through my experience as a practising visual artist I understand the challenges that contemporary artists face, particularly those who work on the margins of mainstream cultural narratives, and how institutions can provide artists with vital financial support, career development opportunities and professional guidance.
I am particularity interested in contributing to the development of critical thinking and creative learning at ESW because I believe that artist-focused institutions have the potential to address ongoing artistic and social dynamics, signposting cultural debates.
Giulia Gentili is an artist and technician who, until recently, was a Graduate Studio Holder at ESW. She received an MA Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art and has worked recently within a variety of organisations including as a workshop technician at the Glasgow School of Art and at Edinburgh College of Art. She also has experience of exhibition installation work across Scotland including recent projects at Talbot Rice Gallery, Dundee Contemporary Arts and with East Lothian Council. In a prior role Gentili worked with the union Unite initiating worker support infrastructures.
As a visiting artist to other arts institutions within the Scotland’s Workshops network, I understand what it takes for an arts institution to successfully create an environment that nurtures and enables artists to reach their fullest potential. This will put me in a strong position to advocate in the best interests ESW’s members, studio holders and visiting artists.
Sekai Machache (she/her) is a Zimbabwean-Scottish visual artist and curator based in Edinburgh. She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee with an MFA in Fine art and Humanities. She is a recipient of the 2020 RSA Morton Award and will be joining the Talbot Rice Residency Programme from 2021-2023.
Machache works internationally with her most recent work taking her to Brazil where she produced a cross-cultural project that was supported by a Creative Scotland and British Council partnership. She often works collaboratively, for and within her community and is a founding and organising member of the Yon Afro Collective.
From my recent experience I believe that I can bring an outward looking perspective with an interest in promoting opportunities for other artists from Scotland more widely.
We would like to thank the outgoing trustees, Georgina Bulkeley, Zoë Fothergill and also Duncan Bremner (who left in 2018) for their dedication and support over the years.
The three new trustees will join continuing Board Members Eddie Frizzell (Chair), Màiri Lafferty (Vice Chair), Kate Davis, Graeme Dickson, Steven Doherty, Julian Luxford, John Matheson and Kathlyn McKellar. Kate Davis stepped down and was re-elected as part of our governance process at ESW’s Annual General Meeting on 22 October 2020.
Images: All Courtesy the artists. Sekai Machache (left); Giulia Gentili (right); detail of video still from: Several Ways of Falling Ordered Differently, Irineu Destourelles, 2019 (above).
