How Much is Enough?
Kate O’Shea and The Just City Residency

This booklet, published in 2023 by Common Ground, Create and Half Letter Press, traces the richness and diversity of artist Kate O’Shea’s response to the Just City Counter Narrative Neighbourhood award 2020 – 2022.

The residency located in studio 468 supported by Common Ground was bolstered by a wide range of established community development organisations with a vibrant history of community-based cultural practice, which is explored in this publication. Featuring contributions from Dr Karen Till, Dr Krini Kafiris & Dr Eve Olney of The Radical Institute, and John Bissett, this publication provides a vital primer for the role of the artist in place at a critical juncture of social change and the conditions needed to support collaborative art practice. ¹

Kate O’ Shea is an artist with a social practice which includes printmaking, the production of ‘social spaces’ and publishing. Kate is currently co-producing Art Architecture Activism with Eve Olney in Cork. She recently published the book Durty Words with graphic designer Victoria Brunetta. Kate has just completed an MA by Research in Printmaking as a space for solidarity and dialogue at Limerick School of Art and Design. ²

Common Ground is an arts organisation working since 1999 with artists and communities. Their rich and imaginative programmes build ways to address local and global issues through the unifying and transformative power of the arts. Their work challenges how access to the arts should not depend on where you’re born, your wealth or identity.³

Create is the national development agency for collaborative arts. Thier work initiates cross-sectoral national and international partnerships which support artists and communities. ⁴

Half Letter Press is a publishing imprint and online store initiated by Temporary Services. Temporary Services is now two people—Brett Bloom & Marc Fischer. We have published booklets as an element of our collaborative work since 1998. We created Half Letter Press to publish and distribute book and booklet length works by ourselves and others. We are interested in using this endeavor to build long-term support and expanded audiences for people that work creatively in experimental ways. We are particularly interested in supporting people and projects that have had difficulty finding financial and promotional assistance through mainstream commercial channels. ⁵