Artists at Work in Irish Health Research and Care

Image: John Conway's mobile printing press for end of life care, Naas General Hospital, Co Kildare

You are warmly welcome to

Artists at Work in Irish Health Research and Care .

Join six artists together with healthcare practitioners and health researchers to explore the unique qualities art and creative research practice can bring to health contexts.

We will look at how contemporary art practices can operate within healthcare, health research, clinical and community contexts and what it takes from both sectors to create great spaces for communication, care and meaningful connection. 

Exploring methodologies rooted in attentiveness, duration and ethical engagement, we will examine the role of the artist as researcher, collaborator, witness, and facilitator in clinical and community environments.

Through creative presentations interspersed with conversation we hope to raise awareness of the rich work currently emerging in Irish health research and care, what it takes to support meaningful partnerships between the art and health sectors and to inspire new ways of bringing creative practices in clinical and research environments into play.

Are you a healthcare professional, arts or healthcare student, researcher, scientist, artist or educator interested in learning more about how the arts can contribute to enhanced healthcare and health research? Do you want to know more about an exciting space with emerging intersections? Then this is the event for you.

The event is proudly supported by the UCD Parity Studios ARISE project in collaboration with UCD and NCAD Creative Futures Academy and UCD School of Nursing.

Image: John Conway's mobile printing press for end of life care, Naas General Hospital, Co Kildare

Schedule

10:00 – Welcome note – Emer O Boyle Co founder and Creative Director of UCD Parity Studios Emma Finucane - UCD Parity studios College of Science Associate Artist, Acting Head of Department in Fine Art PrintNCAD, Program Leader in the Creative Futures Academy,  Arts and Health Professional Diploma.

10:10 – Keynote - Mary Grehan, HSE - Former Arts in Health Curator for Children’s Health Ireland, Director of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust, Director of Tallaght Community Arts Centre and Curator of the National Maternity Hospital’s Centenary Arts Programme.

The Patient Voice

10:40 – Lorna Donlon - Cut From the Same Cloth - UCD Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research

11:10 – Siobhán Clancy - Invasive - National Gallery of Ireland

11:40 – Panel discussion chaired by Mary Grehan with Lorna Donlon, Siobhan Clancy, Elaine Quinn, Aisling Kennedy

12:30 - Lunch

(Un) Common Tools

13:30 - Yvonne Cullivan & Manuala Corbari -  You Are Here  - University Hospital Galway

14:00 – John Conway - Register of Care - Naas Palliative Care Unit

14:30 – Emma Finucane - FLOAT - National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital.

15:00 – Q&A chaired by Dr Andrew Darley

15:30 - Time for helpful encounters

16:00 - End

Speakers and panellists

Morning session - The Patient Voice

Mary Grehan is a writer, curator, arts manager and an employee of the HSE. From 2017 to 2025 she was responsible for commissioning artworks by Remco de Fouw, Rhona Byrne, Jason Bruges Studios, Gareth Kennedy & Ian Wilson, Róisín deBuitléar, Vera Klute, John Conway, Diane McCormick and others for the new children's hospital in Dublin. She is former Director of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust, Tallaght Community Arts Centre and the National Maternity Hospital’s Centenary Arts Programme and former Public Art Curator at Fusion, Oxford. She was guest Curator of an exhibition of work at Wexford County Buildings in 2025 in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Artsability Programme. She is a member of a working group responsible for commissioning an artwork for the Camino Rest All Faith space in St James’ Hospital. She is a visiting lecturer to NCAD in the field of Arts and Health and was an expert advisor to Culture Ireland in the fields of Visual Art and Literature.

Lorna Donlon A textile artist and weaver, Lorna was recipient of the prestigious Golden Fleece Award in 2021, the same year she graduated with a first class honours degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science. In 2021 she was awarded UCD College of Science artist in residence followed by UCD Conway Institute Artist-in-Residence, in partnership with UCD Parity Studios. Prior to this she spent many years teaching at Grennan Mill Craft School in Kilkenny. A tapestry weaver, textile and installation artist, she is interested in the scientific practices of collecting, categorising, labelling and displaying objects. In 2025 she built a large vertical tapestry loom in the UCD Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research for the project 'Cut From The Same Cloth'. This large scale creative research work and tapestry, is populated by fabric stories shared by the unique community of 164 women from minority communities around Ireland and UCD Conway biomedical researchers. Lorna also has an appreciation of the patient experience from her time working in a palliative care setting as a healthcare assistant.

Elaine Quinn was the Project Lead on 'Cut From the Same Cloth'. A member of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, her current role is as Institute Manager (Communications & Education) in UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research. Elaine has managed the Patient Voice in Cancer Research from inception in 2016. This initiative led by UCD Professor Amanda McCann builds connections between cancer patients and researchers across the island of Ireland.

Siobhán Clancy practices visual art with a focus on community-building and justice through collaboration. She works in activist, community, educational, health, and youth contexts. Past performance and exhibition venues include the Crawford Art Gallery (2019), Smock Alley Theatre (2018), A4 Sounds Gallery (2018, 2017, 2016), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2016) and Project Arts Centre (2015). With the support of an Arts Council Bursary and the mentorship of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Clancy is re-engaging with her practice after a three year hiatus. Her current artistic focus is lived cancer experience informed by her own treatment and recovery.

Aisling Kennedy Réalta Project Co-ordinator. Aisling joined Réalta in 2021 in the new role of Project Co-ordinator, managing our Iontas Arts and Mental Health programme, our exhibitions programme and the UHW Art Collection. Aisling previously worked with the Arts in Health team at Children’s Health Ireland. A graduate of the MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at University College Dublin, she is AXELOS Global Best Practice qualified in project management and has a BA in English Literature and Art History.

Afternoon Session - (Un)Common Tools

Dr Andrew Darley is an Assistant Professor/Ad Astra Fellow at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems in University College Dublin. Dr Darley is a lived experience researcher and their interests include an interdisciplinary range of topics, including psychosocial well-being, engaged research, arts and health, digital health, family caregiving and evidence synthesis. Dr Darley has ten years of experience as a research lead and project manager of European-funded research projects focused on designing, implementing and evaluating supportive digital health technology in healthcare settings, both nationally and internationally.

Emma Finucane Following her residency at UCD Parity Studios College of Science Emma started the Arts and Health module in UCD School of Nursing and Midwifery in 2015. She is currently Acting Head of Department in Fine Art Print NCAD and Program Leader in the Creative Futures Academy,  Arts and Health Professional Diploma. A visual artist, she has been researching and making work in health contexts for over fifteen years. Emma makes artwork through dialogue, process based, participatory and collaborative practice.  She investigates how we connect and communicate with place and each other and how this determines the quality of our lives. Her work is built on partnerships in varied communities which continuously redefines and expands the boundaries of her practice.  Emma's art practice has led to working in a variety of health settings such as Crumlin Children's Hospital, The National Forensic Mental Health Service (NFMHS) and Holles Street Hospital.  

Yvonne Cullivan is a visual artist and educator based in the west of Ireland. She has extensive experience in fine art practice, art education, public art, arts & health, curation, arts management, and creative consultancy. Yvonne's creative practice is underpinned by a strong process-led and collaborative approach. She works with a diverse range of communities, always rooting the engagement in context-specific research, interdisciplinary knowledge generation, and participatory activities. Yvonne utilises a broad range of media including; sound, video, photography, digital imaging, interview, writing, drawing. Her methodology involves active listening, observation, documentation and collaboration, followed by collating, editing, and refining of gathered material. The project and artworks that result are rarely pre-determined and always reflective of and shaped by the engagement with the particular communities and contexts involved. Yvonne is currently teaching at NCAD on the undergraduate and CFA programmes and is employed as a hospital-based artist by Helium.

Manuela Corbari is a Galway based artist and filmmaker whose practice spans theatre, film, animation and immersive media. She lectures in Editing on the Film& Documentary/Games &Animation programmes at ATU, and is currently on a career break to focus on developing her creative practice. Her work centres on creating interdisciplinary experiences for children and other audiences through theatre, workshops and audiovisual storytelling in theatres, schools and Arts & Health settings. Manuela’s artistic approach is strongly informed by her background in filmmaking, shaping how she structures narrative, rhythm and visual storytelling. She is particularly interested in collaborative, participatory processes and in combining film techniques, soundscapes, projection and performance. Themes she explores in her work focus on nature and wellbeing, connection and the sense of awe. Her work has been supported by organisations such as Baboró, Branar, Galway Theatre Festival, Mick Lally Theatre, Roscommon Arts Centre, Meath County Council, Galway City Council, O’Donoghue Centre-University of Galway, Saolta Arts and The Arts Council.

John Conway is a socially engaged visual artist. His practice is characterised by innovative multi-disciplinary projects produced in response to sensitive and challenging community contexts. His projects involve the intersection of diverse art forms, including sculpture, installation, moving image, audio, theatre, virtual reality, publication, and curation. His working process is characterized by experimentation with sculptural and 3-dimensional structures, methodologies of acute listening, sensitivity to context and a robust interrogation of artistic processes across collaborative contextual work and formalised gallery output. John is a 3-year studio resident at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.