Thursday 17th June 2021
4:00pm - IWMMF - In Conversation with Aimée & Gill Dooley
4:15pm - IWMMF - In Conversation with Sophie Doyle Ryder & Gráinne MacNeill
4:30pm - IWMMF - In Conversation with Lisa Hannigan & Bernadette Barrett
5:00pm - IWMMF - In Conversation with Fia Moon & Ismay Bourke
Women’s Work cares as much about supporting females onstage, as off stage. We are delighted to host a special series of ‘In Conversation’ pieces as part of Women’s Work 2021 to shine a light on the talented women and non binary people active in Ireland as artist managers.
The Irish Women Music Managers Forum (IWMMF) was founded by Ismay Bourke in 2020 as a response to the growing number of women and non-binary people working as artist managers in the Music Industry in Ireland.
Comprising of over 20 women who manage artists and acts across all genres, the mission of the IWMMF is to provide a safe and open forum for women and non-binary artist managers so that we can come together to support, network, learn and educate.
Our vision is to contribute to a better music industry in Ireland; one that encourages women and non-binary people in artist management - to support each other and hold each other up. We will actively foster change to ensure women and non-binary people are more visible within the industry, receive the support we need, and are treated as equals as we shape the future of the Irish Music Industry together.
“Just as it seemed like the amount of women in artist management roles started to grow, the world started to shut down, and a lot of us found ourselves working in solitude,” says Ismay, who manages artists Fia Moon and Dashoda.
“The IWMMF started out life as a WhatsApp group with a few other artist manager friends of mine - who just happen to be women too! The pandemic shut down our industry’s usual networking events - gigs, conferences, events - and we found ourselves increasingly isolated. Our little network grew from six people to over 20 in the space of a few months. It was then that I realised, ‘there’s really an appetite and a need for women doing this job to have a forum to support each other’, and from little acorns grow large oak trees! Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.”