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Sunday Business Post Interview

Published November 25, 2007

An interview with Jessamyn which appeared in The Sunday Business Post, text by Carol Hayes.

Art shop with a difference

A love of writing and a stint at Sarah Lawrence College, a small liberal arts college just outside New York, led Jessamyn Fiore to Ireland and to Thisisnotashop Gallery in Dublin.

“I began writing plays when I was 13 and, to hone my skills, I went to the Sarah Lawrence College to study playwriting and theatre,” Fiore said.

“While I was there, I made some good Irish friends and started to visit Ireland. I loved it. After graduation I moved to Galway and started my own theatre company called the Road Show Theatre.”

Fiore wrote two productions and directed two others. “The last play I wrote was titled Sandwich and we performed it in London, the Prague Fringe Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2005.I still continue to write plays,” she said.

Fiore was born in New Hampshire in 1980 and grew up in the New York art world, as both her parents work in the arts. “I grew up in a loft a few blocks north of Union Square - it was a converted factory space, and there was always art on the walls, as well as artists popping over. It was, in fact like a hotel for artists and literally has been my way of life ever since.”

Fiore joined Thisisnotashop Gallery, a not-for-profit gallery for emerging artists founded last year by Aideen Darcy and Marius Stanley, as a director and partner in March.

“I was in New York when I heard about Thisisnotashop and it s success through friends,” Fiore said. “I adored the idea of the gallery and what Aideen and Marius were creating.

I decided to move back to Dublin and at the same time Marius decided to leave. Aideen asked me to come on board. It has been a fantastic experience so far.

“Our space is a small shop-front gallery that looks directly onto to the Luas line that runs down Benburb Street - every eight minutes we have a carriage load of people looking in our windows.

“We nurture artists and support them to use the space to its best and their best ability. We also are a place of creativity, as we run a writing workshop for writers and artists interested in working with text. We have an ambitious programme and put on an average of three shows a month.”

Fiore said the gallery was proving itself “a serious alternative art space in Dublin”.

For example, at the end of this month, the gallery will exhibit works by Gordon Matta Clark, an American artist who has never exhibited in Ireland.

“We are focusing on the restaurant he opened in Soho, in New York in 1971 called Food, which was a meeting point for the community of artists at the time, a performance space, and a work of art. It was a successful and influential alternative art space and, through this show, we hope to raise awareness about the importance of alternative art spaces,” Fiore said.