Acclaimed Mountmellick woodturner Alan Meredith has been awarded a €10,000 bursary for winning this year’s Design and Craft council of Ireland’s Future Maker of the Year Award.
Meredith was awarded the RDS Craft Awards bursary for his woodturning business, where he creates bespoke furniture and woodturned pieces. He has also undertaken public space commissions.
He hopes to access new markets internationally and increase his presence at exhibitions and trade fairs over the coming years.
He plans to spend the bursary on new equipment and creating a new area in his studio for design, research and displaying his finished work.
A judging panel of five craft and design professionals reviewed the applications and shortlisted nine candidates to interviews in the RDS in May.
Physical examples of their work were presented to the panel and from that 5 were chosen as winners.
In addition to the bursary, the winners will also be given the opportunity to present their work to the public on a free stand at Gifted – The Contemporary Craft and Design Fair in the RDS in September.
Alan graduted from UCD with a masters degree in architecture, in September 2015.
Alan was also the overall winner of Laois’s Best Young Entrepreneur, as well as winning in the category of Best Start-Up Business last year.
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