Abbey Road Artists’ Studios Current Residents | Artists’ Studios | Athlone Arts and Tourism

STUDIO 1 – Aoife Doolan

Aoife Doolan, is a multidisciplinary, community based artist, musician and painter, currently residing and working in Westmeath. In 2008 she graduated from Dublin Institute of Technology with a B.A in Fine Art and further completed an M.A in Film Studies and Screen Culture at University College Dublin in 2010. In 2008, she was selected by the Royal Hibernian Academy for their Emerging Artist Graduate exhibition for her work titled Flightless, which also went on to gain recognition with Filmbase and Underground Cinema in Dublin. She had exhibited work in various locations across Ireland, including Athlone’s Luan Gallery, and her work was selected for inclusion in the 2020 HerStory light show exhibition, projected on the GPO in Dublin city.

Over the past fifteen years Aoife has developed both a personal practice as a solo artist, and a practice as a community artist, with a specific focus on community inclusion and regeneration. She has co-founded three community artist collectives over that time including the Making Space collective, Athlone and the Pulse collective in Bantry, Co.Cork where she lived and worked as a community artist for over a decade. She has exhibited her work across the country, including Athlone’s Luan Gallery (Boardwalk Gallery) alongside the Louis Le Broqucy exhibition, An Tain.

Aoife is currently working under the Athlone Family Resource Centre as the Community Arts Inclusion worker, with a residency at Abbey Road Studios in collaboration with Athlone Arts and Tourism.

STUDIO 2 – Niamh Butler

Niamh Butler (b. 1988, Ballinasloe, Ireland) is an Irish multidisciplinary designer & artist based in Athlone. After graduating from the University of Plymouth with a Masters in Architecture she designed beautiful award-winning family homes with Brennan Furlong Architects in Dublin. Niamh has worked on the tangible alongside the intangible: clothes, rugs, interior spaces, buildings, homes, edible gardens, social constructs such as land ownership and planning laws. Her goal is always to bring more beauty, order and harmony into the world through the design and making of clothes, textiles, homes and habitats.

She is currently naturally dyeing onto reclaimed and locally abundant cotton, linen and wool with slow processes that are nurturing to people and our water ecology.

STUDIO 3 – Clare Daly Madden

Clare Daly Madden is a visual artist currently pursuing a part-time degree in Art & Design – Fine Art Painting at ATU Galway. Her passion for art began in childhood, where she spent hours drawing, crocheting, and experimenting with textiles and mixed media. In 1992, she studied Art, Design, and Crafts at Ballyfermot Senior College, followed by a year at Limerick RTC (now TUS). While a career in administration and banking took precedence, her creative drive never faded. She continued to explore art through short courses before returning to college in 2021 as a mature student to refine her painting practice.

Working primarily in acrylics, with elements of oil and mixed media, Clare’s work is deeply inspired by the Irish landscape, memory, and the human connection to nature. Recent achievements include exhibiting in an open-call collaboration in 2023, co-hosting Origins in 2024, and designing the 2024 Féile Cheoil Larry Reynolds festival poster. Her work was also showcased at the inaugural 2024 Culture Night in Moore. In 2025, she received a Roscommon County Council bursary and a second festival poster commission.

STUDIO 4 – Amanda Ralph

Amanda Ralph (b. 1966, Athlone, Ireland) graduated with a Fine Art degree from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (1990), and an MFA from the University of Arizona on a Fulbright Scholarship (1995). Her first solo exhibition, Coroner Regrets, was held at Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (1999), and toured to the Orchard Gallery Derry, 2000 and the Irish Arts Centre, New York in 2002.

Ralph has completed public art commissions, with work permanently sited at Lough Boora Sculpture Park, and has participated in residencies in the Netherlands, France, and New York, representing Ireland in PS1 MoMA’s International Residency Programme. Her work is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council, Culture Ireland, and Westmeath County Council.