Between 2015-2016, 21 Israeli artists and writers stayed at the Curfew Tower, Cushendall, Northern ‎Ireland, a Catholic village with Republican roots.‎

The unusual small red sandstone Curfew Tower at the central crossroads was built in 1817, based on a ‎building the landowner had seen in China in his travels as a tea and opium trader. It was originally a ‎prison ‘for the confinement of idlers and rioters’.‎

In 1994, artist/musician Bill Drummond bought the Curfew Tower, and in 1999 he reinvented the tower as ‎an artists’ residency program. He invited artists to reside and produce work that responds to their ‎experience living in the tower and the village of Cushendall.‎
Each year the residencies at the Curfew Tower are curated by a different organization or individual. In ‎‎2014 Israeli artist Sagit Mezamer curated the tower residency for a period of 18 months.‎

Each artist stayed at the tower for several weeks, working on their own projects, researching, and getting ‎to know the area. The residency offers a somewhat unique experience of isolation from the outer world on ‎one hand, yet a sense of belonging to the local community on the other. Each artist resided alone, with ‎hardly any cellular or internet reception, while at the same time the artists received a warm welcome by ‎the people of Cushendall. The Curfew Tower offers artists the opportunity to become, for a limited period ‎of time, part of a new place, and to imagine the opportunities this once bleeding part of the world has to ‎offer.‎

In January 2017, a comprehensive exhibition of works produced by the residency artists titled Nothing ‎But Longing #1 was opened at Void Derry Gallery in Northern Ireland.‎

Curfew Tower Artists: Rafram Chaddad / Jonathan Ofek / Shahar Yahalom / Ron Dudai / Shai Ratner / ‎Yonatan Levy / Talia Keinan & Guy Sherf / Guy Goldstein...