She's only been in Ireland for a couple of weeks, she's already caught a cold, she hasn't found a place to live yet and, the day I meet her, she's recovering from the opening night of her first exhibition at Project. But despite all this, the young New Zealander still manages to exude energy, passion and excitement about her new position.

"I had heard about Project through artists and curatorsf and I'd done shows before about what theatre means in relation to contemporary art, so I've a strong interest in the structure of Project. But it was meeting Niamh [O'Donnell, general manager] and Willie [White, artistic director] that really sparked my interest in coming here . . .

they're really amazing individuals."

Project, according to its programming policy, "exists in order to encourage and support emerging and established artists in creating innovative work and to engage the public", and Giblin is eager to follow this approach. "I'm very much interested in 'project' and what the possibilities are to produce artworks heref what I'm going to do in 2007 is to invite four or five artists to make site-specific works."

Significantly, Giblin is not afraid to support what she calls "radical" projects: "As curators, we need to start fighting a little bit harder for projects that are difficult for an institution to argue to a public because the visibility is low or it's difficult to access what is actually going on. We need to support those projects and then communicate them in a way that people can understand and come on the journey with us."

The current exhibition, PHILIP, is a good example. The concept is unusual:

initiated by curator Mai Abu El Dahab, artist Heman Chong and critic Leif Magne Tangen, it brought together eight international curators, artists and writers for a seven-day workshop last week, during which they collaboratively wrote a science fiction novel set in 2019 in a place called Philipville . . . a reference to Philip K Dick. The book will be published in January and, in the meantime, the public has been given a way to "come on the journey" through public talks and a series of sci-fi shorts that are being screened in Project along with Beckett's Film.

The project is principally about the collaborative process. The end product will not be published as blockbuster popular fiction either . . . it will be produced as a limited edition book of 100 copies, with the price increasing exponentially the more copies are sold.

Time will tell whether this "radical project" has been successful. But Giblin's enthusiasm continues unabated. "The [participants in the workshop] are all saying this is possibly the most professional institution they've ever worked with. I think that's amazing!"

'PHILIP' continues at Project until the day of the book launch, 13 January