The Secret Artists

Original version

Simulcast of BBC One Northern Ireland in high definition. From 24/10/2012

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BBC Northern Ireland region started on 19th April 1955 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One Northern Ireland.

BBC One Northern Ireland

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Simulcast of BBC Two Northern Ireland in high definition

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

Keith Doyle

Hilary Fennell

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

BBC One - The Secret Artists

Hopeful artists create and submit to the RUA Exhibition 2022. Will any get in?

Comedian Colin Murphy and four other artists are hoping to get into Northern Ireland's biggest exhibition. But how will they cope with rejection if they don’t get into the RUA?

The RUA is Northern Ireland’s biggest annual art exhibition, an opportunity for all artists - professionals and amateurs alike - to show their work at the Ulster Museum. This documentary follows five artists hoping to have their work selected from the competitive open call. For the first time ever, cameras have been allowed behind-the-scenes at the 142-year-old Royal Ulster Academy.

The five artists have been chosen from across Northern Ireland and each has their own story to tell. Comedian Colin Murphy took up painting during lockdown. Stephen Greer, a former drug dealer and paramilitary member, learned to paint in prison. For anxiety-sufferer Amy Wyatt and her mother Alice, a survivor of sexual abuse, ceramics and print-making are more than hobbies: they’re lifelines. Farmer Thomas McNeill makes giant sculptures as a means of self-expression.

The programme follows the artists through the process of creating an artwork to finding out whether or not it has been accepted. Along the way we discover why and how they make art and how they deal with rejection. And we reveal, for the first time on television, the black art of the RUA selection process, as well as observing the controlled mayhem of the install as the team race against time to create this art marathon of a show in time for opening night.

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