There are two start points, a chance encounter with a Donegal Cottage Tweed suit and a house in Shrove, Donegal. This residency sets out to explore what exists in the space between these two points. The Tweed Suit considers Laura’s personal connection to a place through its cloth. Having made studies of Donegal Tweed in paper collage and textile applique, she wants to go deeper, to ask questions about the cloth, while thinking about memory, belonging and land. From questioning why the Donegal Cottage Tweed industry grew in the late 19th Century, to asking who wove The Tweed Suit, to uncovering more about Ireland’s early textiles. This research weaves together questions about the history of Donegal, its Tweed industry and Laura’s love of textiles. Born in Derry, she will mine her own family connection to Shrove, Donegal. Attempting to understand the need to get closer to a place through its woven fibres, it’s history and its people.

Laura McCafferty is a visual artist based in Donegal, Ireland. Originally from Derry, she moved to Nottingham in 2000 to study Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent University. Laura graduated in 2003 and established a studio-based practice making textile artworks using appliqué, screen-print and hand embroidery. She exhibited nationally and internationally gaining widespread recognition and her works were purchased for public and private collections. In 2012, Laura completed an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University, London. Graduating in 2016 with a Distinction. She was Associate Lecturer at NTU, returning to take up the role of Public Programmes Curator at CCA Derry~Londonderry in 2020. Recent exhibitions include Shape of the Place, Art Arcadia, Derry, 2022 and Swallowing Geography, curated by Rachel Botha at RCC, Letterkenny and Glebe House, 2022. Laura has been awarded Donegal Artist Bursaries in 2022 and 2024, was a member of the artist collective NINE, is the Jerwood Supports Coordinator at CCA, has been a speaker at a number of VAI events from 2022. In November she will deliver a talk and workshop for Spraoi agus Spórt, on her research for The Tweed Suit