bio

JULIE FORRESTER’s Multi-disciplinary Visual Arts Practice:

Work begins with a particular creative encounter …..

My work begins with a particular creative encounter—an intuitive moment that opens a space for attention, curiosity, and response. From there, projects unfold through a series of gestures: an exploration, a mapping of territory, a documenting of unfolding experience through a variety of media and embodied processes.
Material processes become performative enactments—ways of making that allow memory to surface through gesture, rhythm, and tactile engagement. These acts of making are not only physical but also emotional and relational, connecting inner experience with the outer world.
Each project evolves through a responsive relationship with place, people, and material. I am drawn to the temporal layers embedded in landscapes, objects, and collective memory. Whether through participatory methods, site-responsive actions, or durational making, my practice seeks to create spaces where memory meets the sensual present—where the act of making becomes a kind of listening, a way of attending to what lies beneath the surface.
At the heart of this work is a search for belonging. The projects I create hold space for fragments of story, history, and presence to coexist—inviting others into moments of reflection, resonance, and quiet transformation.

BIOGRAPHY

Julie Forrester is a visual artist and creative producer, whose practice prioritises process-based approaches often working collaboratively and ‘in context’. Forrester’s work is characterised by an enquiry into narrative forms arising from connection with place and shared experience.

JF’s practice employs process-based approaches arising from connections with place, memory and shared experience. Recent work focuses on urban ecologies and climate awareness. Her collaborative work explores the sense of belonging which arises out of a relationship with place, subtly embracing themes of advocacy and inclusion. Recent projects include an intergenerational project Stories from The Elders of The Blackwater Catchment (2024-25) and the multidisciplinary arts participation and site-specific Art Project, Gleann a’Phúca (2021-25) in the Glen.

With a long career as artist in community, health and education contexts, JF is a panelist with numerous arts organisations, including The Crawford Art Gallery, where she delivers programmes in response to artworks and exhibitions. As a member of the Gallery’s Learn & Explore team Forrester leads outreach programme, Follow your Nose in partnership with Cork Migrant Centre among other community engagments. JF is a panelist with Cork County Council’s Arts Office, where she delivers programmes for projects such as Make or Break (with Sample Studios), The Frameworks Programme, Cruinniu na nÓg, Lifelong learning and the Arts & Health Social Prescribing Programme. She works with Creative Ireland’s TAP and BLAST programmes in schools. JF is a long-time associate artist with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, and has collaborated with children and teachers on residencies across Ireland, projects include: Virtually There, Trading Places, and Multimedia Maps. She is a member of The Design and Crafts Council of Ireland’s Education panel and the Arts Council’s Artists in Prison Scheme. She was one of seven artists who devised and delivered the ROAM project with young people and elders on Cork’s Northside. She has a regular creative commitment with young Travellers at the Mayfield Youth Café.

Forrester’s art projects have received awards from Creative Climate Action (2023), Cork City Council (2023) The Arts Council of Ireland (YPCE Bursary Award 2021, Agility Award 2022) and Local Authority Arts Offices in Offally, Cavan, and Wexford. Numerous projects have been supported by Cork City Council’s Arts in Context awards and productions for Gleann na Phúca were made possible through Research and Art Project Awards (2022, 2023). JF has been commissioned by the Department of Education and Science to make participatory public artworks in Wexford and Galway under the Per cent for Art Scheme.

While a member of Backwater Artist’s Group JF worked for many years with the Art Trail Festival, she was co-Curator and Production Manager for Cork’s Soundworks Festival in 2004 and held the position of Artistic Director of the Art Trail Festival from 2006- 2008.

Memberships

Professional membership: Visual Artists Ireland – C.R.E.A.T.E.

Sample Studios – Cork County Council Artist Panel

Ex member and Chair of Backwater Artist Group