29 April 2025
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Ballydehob Arts Museum is located in the heart of Ballydehob village on Main Street in the former AIB Bank building.
Ballydehob Arts Museum Celebrates the Work of Naomi Brandel and Marc Brandel
The Ballydehob Arts Museum/BAM is proud to present its 2025 summer exhibition,
honouring the lives and work of two of Ballydehob’s most influential former residents:
Naomi Brandel and Marc Brandel.
Opening on Thursday, May 1st to coincide with the Ballydehob Jazz Festival, the exhibition
explores the creative legacy of this remarkable couple who were among the first artists to
settle in Ballydehob in the early 1960s.
Marc Brandel (born Marcus Beresford, 1919–1994) was a British-born novelist and
screenwriter whose career spanned New York, Los Angeles and West Cork. He wrote
acclaimed novels such as Rain Before Seven and The Time of the Fire, as well as screenplays
for Escape from Colditz and Fantasy Island.
In 1962, the couple moved to Ballydehob, where Marc continued writing and Naomi began
her own artistic journey in painting and ceramics. With encouragement from local artists and
potters, her ceramic sculptures gained recognition, including awards from the RDS in the late
1970s. She went on to train as an art therapist, blending nature observation into her later
works. While living in Ballydehob, Marc wrote the children’s novel The Mine of Lost Days,
set in West Cork.
Now living in England, Naomi will return to Ballydehob for the opening.
“I am honoured that the Ballydehob Arts Museum has chosen to mark both my work and
Marc’s this summer in the village that inspired much of our work at the time that we lived
here. Being among the very first artists to settle in Ballydehob in the early 1960s, we saw the
creative community develop and thrive. I never imagined that my journey would come full
circle in such a beautiful way,” she said.
The exhibition will continue over the Summer months.