A FERMANAGH art gallery has launched a new project that will allow artists to complete an artist-in-residence scheme in its sister home.

Hambly & Hambly Gallery at Dunbar House, Enniskillen has announced a new initiative, ‘The John Richardson Residency Award’ – an annual opportunity for artists of visual, literary, musical and dramatic arts to make submissions of their work to the gallery in the hope of securing a place on the Hambly & Hambly French residency project.

Three artists will be selected to join together in a ten-day residency in France in the beautiful Charente Maritime region, where gallery owners Nick and Ciara Hambly have invested in their latest venture: a sister home for Dunbar House.

Artists will be invited to convene and create new works to form the basis of international exhibitions in Ireland, France and virtually throughout the world.

The Enniskillen-based business will be collaborating with international public organisations and private businesses to secure the success of this new venture, and look forward to sharing further details on their social media platforms.

The award is named after gallery director Ciara Hambly’s late father, John Richardson, a local businessman who passed away in 2020.

The award will run every year and will provide artists from throughout the island of Ireland and beyond with a unique opportunity to apply for residency with other creatives, fully-funded by the gallery in a new initiative to encourage international growth in the arts.

As an experienced teacher of French, Ciara has strong professional and personal links with France.

Speaking to this newspaper, she said: “Hambly & Hambly are delighted and excited to provide new international opportunities for artists to convene and create. We are looking to our shared future in creativity, and celebrating the real power of art to carry us through difficulties together with a strong vision of development.

“We are honoured to respect my late father in the naming of this new award, which is open to emerging and established artists of all genres.

“We look forward to sharing further details of The John Richardson Residency Award in the coming months.”

The team at have been working hard to keep arts alive in the community, and this can be seen through Hambly & Hambly’s popular ‘Imagine’ Facebook page.

In times of social distancing, the Imagine initiative has been overcoming physical distance by extending a warm embrace to an increasingly thriving artistic community.

Founded a year ago by Ciara, Imagine is a social media network of 3,000 international members, celebrating the power of the arts to sustain people in solidarity and creative vision in times of social isolation.

The group features two solo exhibitions every week, group exhibitions, on-site live-streamed cultural events and daily posts from artists of all genres from around the world, making Enniskillen an epicentre of artistic growth and excitement.

The initiatives of Hambly & Hambly and their support for artists since the outbreak of the pandemic have most recently been recognised and endorsed with significant funding from The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, for which the gallery and all its representatives are deeply grateful, says Ciara.

Further information will be released on May 1 regarding The John Richardson Residency Award.

Hambly & Hambly at Dunbar House and Imagine are open Facebook pages, free for all members of the public to join.

For further information about the initiatives, email ciara@hamblyandhambly.com.