Ruth McCullough – Creative Director & Producer specialising in art, technology and sustainability
Working between Ireland, the UK and internationally she has initiated and produced projects that foreground support for emerging artists and artforms, often exploring the creative potential of emerging technology and science. Her experience commissioning and producing public artworks and programmes (festivals, film, exhibition, performance, online, outdoor, interactive and research) centres artists and audiences in critical conversations about our changing world.
Between 2009-2023 she was Producer then Director of Abandon Normal Devices (AND), a radical arts organisation situated in the North of England curating experiences, commissioning, and incubating new art, cinema, and sound. During that time she led the development of the AND Festival the UK’s only roaming digital biennial. Working with international artists, musicians, filmmakers and directors such as; Matthew Plummer Fernandez (UK), Beatrice Dillon (UK), Mark Amerika (US), Addie Wagenknecht (US), Daito Manabe (JP), !Mediengruppe Bitnik (CH), Ubermorgen (AT), Studio Roosegarde (NL), Eva & Franco Mattes (IT), Julian Oliver (NZ), Brody Condon (US), and Anita Fountaine (NZ).
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1. In the Eyes of the Animal, Marshmallow Laser Feast, AND Festival (2015)
2. Taut Line, Beatrice Dillion, AND Festival (2017)
3. Waterlicht, Studio Roosegrade, AND Festival (2017)
Between 2017-19 she initiated and produced COSMOS a flagship international art-science residency and commission exploring deep space in collaboration with the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, AND and the bluedot Festival. Between 2014-19 she led two Creative Europe partnershsip projects, Masters & Servers and the New Networked Normal that focused on art and activism online with partners in Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany and the Netherlands, collaboratively producing a range of artworks, exhibitions, events and publications.
In 2023 she relocated to her native Belfast and continues to develop and produce national and international collaborations focused on art, technology and sustainability, including;
• Executive Producer for Immersive Arts, a £6 million UK-wide programme supporting artists to make and share extraordinary immersive work.
• Sustainability & Artistic Development Lead at Lost Farm Festival, a new festival hosting experiments across art, music, and performance at Sjællands Odde peninsula in Denmark, launching August 2025.
• New Rhythms, a slow collaborative research project exploring regenerative cultures, emerging technology and new ways of producing in the arts.
