Cork ceramic artist wins top gong at Enterprise Awards

A CORK-based artist has described her win of the overall accolade at the Cork City Enterprise Awards, which were presented at an event in the Imperial Hotel last week, as a “massive validation”.

Bernadette Tuite, who is based at the Backwater Artists Studio on Wandesford Quay, attended the event in the expectation of a meal and little else, and so was surprised to be named as the winner of both the Innovation & Environmental and Overall awards at the event, which is backed by the Cork City Partnership and the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme.

“Getting an award like that goes way beyond the money part, in that it just means that what I do is recognised, appreciated, valued — and it really helps you get out of bed and come into work,” Bernadette told The Echo.

The artist, who spent many years as a ship’s captain in California, is inspired by her affinity with the ocean.

She now plans to use the prize money, a total of €1,500, to invest in adding an e-commerce element to her website to enable her to sell directly to the public.

Otherwise, she pointed out, artists have to rely on galleries to sell their work and this incurs considerable commission rates, which are needed to meet the costs of the galleries, such as wages, advertising, and heating.

Bernadette described the awarding of an enterprise award to her as an artist as a “wonderful crossover” .

“The Local Enterprise Office and Cork City Partnership are very supportive of the creative sector in Cork,” said Bernadette.

“For the actual boots-on-the-ground individual artist, it is unusual to get an enterprise award — I suppose I have been enterprising in that I have survived since 2019, through the pandemic, by saying yes to every opportunity that came my way.”

There were 12 nominees for four awards on the night.

The other winners were Ink Malesevic and Jacob Al-Laham of Coffee Scape on Popes Quay, who received the Emerging New Business award; Churchfield Community Trust in the Social Enterprise category; and Robert Hughes of RT Autos, the winner of the Substantial Growth Award.

Green Party councillor Colette Finn, the deputy mayor of Cork city, highlighted the fact that this was the first holding of the event since 2018.

“Small- and medium-sized businesses are the bedrock of the city’s economy, and these awards reflect the skills and diversity of talent that are abundant in Cork city,” she said.