Sound, Breath and Song Workshop with Rachel Dempsey
Sat 2 May / 11am-1pm / Matheson Creativity Hub
Book required / Book Here

Join a welcoming voice and singing workshop inspired by the themes of ancestry, ecological urgency, and the interconnectedness of humanity alive in Cecilia Vicuña’s exhibition Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey.

Inspired by the Chilean artist’s ancestral connections to Ireland, through sound, breathe and song we will explore links to nature and wildness in the heritage of both cultures. Discover how certain instruments were used in the Andes to express gratitude to the land and to bring on the right weather for the potato crop and how Sean Nós singing is deeply rooted in the rural landscape of Ireland. In this workshop, open to all regardless of singing experience we will reconnect with our voices as embodied instruments in the wider soundscape of the living world. We will playfully weave song, vocal soundscapes, body percussion and the sounds of Andean instruments, exploring the intimate connection between music, sound and ecology.

In these challenging times of ecological destruction, we will take inspiration from ancestral wisdom of our rootedness and entanglement in the web of life present in both cultures. This workshop is an opportunity to use our voices and bodies to restore our own connection to ourselves as part of nature and as stewards of the natural world.

Facilitator: Facilitated by Rachel Dempsey, a singer, song leader, changemaker, ethnomusicologist, and global citizenship educator. She has spent time researching music and identity in Colombia and Brazil as well as singing with Indigenous communities in Bolivia and Australia. She is passionate about the role of the voice, music and singing in restoring our relationship with the web of life. Through her initiative Full Circle Change, Rachel provides workshops and courses for organisations and individuals, focusing on the intersection of creativity, wellbeing and sustainability and the inner dimensions (values, beliefs, worldviews, capacities and emotions ) that enable or block meaningful sustainability transition. Her work draws on training in ‘Work that Reconnects’, trauma-informed practices and forest bathing, supported by her studies in Latin American Studies (BA), Ethnomusicology (MA), and Climate, Justice and Sustainability (MA). Learn more at www.fullcirclechange.ie

Threshold Tree: Exploring Hawthorn, Interconnection and Ecological Transitions in a precarious world

Drawing and Watercolour workshop with Enagh Farrell
Sat 2 May / 2-4pm / Matheson Creativity Hub
Booking required / Book here 

Responding to artist Cecilia Vicuna’s exploration of precarity, interconnection and land-based knowledge in her exhibition Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey, this drawing and watercolour workshop led by Enagh Farrell centres on the Hawthorn as a threshold tree associated with ancient seasonal festivals such as Bealtaine. Often found at boundaries- field edges, crossings or open landscapes and culturally understood as marking points of transition, the hawthorn has long been seen as bridging states of being, a liminal point signalling moments of seasonal and ecological transformation

The workshop approaches grief through this threshold condition, not as an isolated or purely personal experience but as something that emerges through attunement, responsiveness and the presence of love. Drawing on Irish herbal knowledge where hawthorn is associated with the heart and circulatory system, grief is considered as embodied, relational and ongoing, here the focus turns toward ecological forms of grief- attending to environmental loss, fragility and effects of human intervention on the landscape

Working through drawing and watercolour, participants will engage with the Hawthorn through both plant and cultural context attending to its tenuousness, capacity to hold connection and its position within processes of change.

In this space the threshold becomes a place in which grief and care, loss and connection, are held simultaneously. Echoing the sensibilities within Vicunas work, the session foregrounds the delicate, often imperceptible connections that bind human and more-than-human life, inviting participants to work within this shared, entangled space.

This is as much a drawing workshop as it is a space for community reflection, connection and conversation.

No drawing experience is necessary.

Faciliator: Enagh Farrell is a multidisciplinary illustrator working in drawing, painting, and sometimes writing and teaching. Themes in her work explore embodiment and interconnectivity with our surroundings. How can we tell stories about this connection? How can we help everyone reconnect to Nature and its magic.

Previous commission clients include Hachette Ireland, The Digital Hub, Dublin, Galway City Council and Pocket Forests. Enagh has a BA in Fine Art Print from NCAD and a Master’s in Visual Art Practices from IADT.

Enagh is a member of local community groups Inchicore Environmental and Dublin 8 Green Bridge Forum. Volunteering with these environmentally aware community groups help to form ideas in her practice.

Material Histories: The old Kilmainham Mill and Cecilia Vicuña: Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey

Booking required / Book Here
Time: 11.30am – 1.15pm
Meeting Point – Kilmainham Mill double gates. Located on Rowserstown Lane, Dublin 8.

Join us for a Culture Club presented in partnership with IMMA for the Culture Date with Dublin 8 Festival. There will be a tour of the 200 year old Kilmainham Mill then the group will walk to IMMA and experience a slow looking tour of selected works from the exhibition Cecilia Vicuña: Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey.

Kilmainham Mill dates from 1800 and fell into dereliction after its closure in 2000. Dublin City Council purchased the Mill and has completed a programme of stabilisation works and essential repairs which included repairs to the roofs, removal of asbestos and propping of floor. Dublin City Council Culture Company is working on activating the Mill for meanwhile uses. During this tour the Culture Company will provide limited access to a small area of the interior and to the courtyard.

Then we’ll walk around the corner to IMMA for a slow looking tour of selected works from the exhibition Cecilia Vicuña: Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey. This is the first solo exhibition by renowned artist, poet and activist Cecilia Vicuña in Ireland. For this exhibition Vicuña delves into themes of ancestry, ecological urgency and the interconnectedness of humanity inspired by the discovery of her ancient ties to Ireland. Central to the exhibition is a site-specific quipu – an ancient Andean system of communication using knotted cords – created with the participation of local makers, the commission is a reference to the design of the Aran sweater that is thought to be symbolic of nature, the sea and the lives of the fisherman and Islanders.

Culture Club is a series of hosted talks and tours that introduce and encourage people to connect with the cultural spaces of the city.

IMMA Horizons aims to contribute to new thinking on how creativity can positively impact health and wellbeing through programming and partnerships.

From Kilmainham Mill to Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman Camille Souter and Alberta Whittle exhibition

Free / Book Here
Time: 2.30 – 4.15pm
Meeting Point – Kilmainham Mill double gates. Located on Rowserstown Lane, Dublin 8.

Join us for a Culture Club presented in partnership with IMMA for the Culture Date with Dublin 8 Festival. There will be a tour of the 200 year old Kilmainham Mill then the group will walk to IMMA and experience a slow looking tour of some selected works from the exhibition Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman, Camille Souter and Alberta Whittle.

Kilmainham Mill dates from 1800 and fell into dereliction after its closure in 2000. Dublin City Council purchased the Mill and has completed a programme of stabilisation works and essential repairs which included repairs to the roofs, removal of asbestos and propping of floor. Dublin City Council Culture Company is working on activating the Mill for meanwhile uses. During this tour the Culture Company will provide limited access to a small area of the interior and to the courtyard.

Then we’ll walk around the corner to the Irish Museum of Modern for a slow looking tour of some selected works from the exhibition Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman, Camille Souter and Alberta Whittle. This exhibition brings together the practices of painter Camille Souter and contemporary artist Alberta Whittle, spanning 70 years of artistic production across two generations – from Souter’s early works of the 1950s to Whittle’s practice today. Working across painting, collage and watercolour, alongside immersive film, installation and performance, both artists explore themes of life and death, resistance and regeneration.

Culture Club is a series of hosted talks and tours that introduce and encourage people to connect with the cultural spaces of the city

IMMA Horizons aims to contribute to new thinking on how creativity can positively impact health and wellbeing through programming and partnerships.

This year for National Drawing Day at IMMA we will explore drawing as a universal language through a series of workshops engaging with drawing as a relational practice (to self and others), as a form of attentive witnessing (noticing/responding), as experiential exploration (process of doing, testing discovering) and as somatic dialogue – through intuitive mark making, and collective/site responsive approaches across our 48 acre site

Relational Practice: Intuitive Drawing as Enquiry, Attunement and Play with David Begley 
Sat 16 May, 11am – 2:30pm / Book Here
The workshop will run 11am – 12:30pm, 30 min break, 1pm – 2:30pm.
Location: Matheson Creativity Hub

Within this workshop drawing is approached as a relational practice – one that invites participants into dialogue with themselves, with others and with their environment Influenced by intuitive approaches to mark making, the process centres on asking rather than answering.

What can drawing reveal about how I think, feel and perceive?
What emerges when I loosen control and allow marks to lead?
How can drawing become a space for listening rather than producing? How do I relate to uncertainty, spontaneity or not knowing with the process? Play is understood here not as something separate from enquiry, but as a vital condition for it -opening up space for curiosity, risk taking and non judgement
For this workshop natural materials will be used  including cramp ball, charcoal, and cork in order to explore intuitive drawing. These will be explored in order to find our own marks, to play, discover, and invent.

Participants will learn how to harvest and prepare wood for baking charcoal at home, and will explore tools and techniques for drawing in charcoal. Through experimenting with these, participants will enjoy the wide range of marks, tones, textures and colours home-baked charcoal can produce. Cramp ball and burnt cork are versatile mediums ideal for painterly, abstract drawing.

Participants will enjoy mark making exercises in order to explore intuitive drawing, working from imagination, or drawing from observation. Workshop will take place in the Creativity Hub and outdoors (weather permitting).

Artist David Begley takes a holistic approach to teaching, creating a fun and non competitive atmosphere in which people can relax, focus, and enjoy learning and creating. Participants are encouraged to find their own marks to create their own unique work. He works with the group as a whole through demonstration, instruction, and storytelling, and one to one in order to foster each individual’s unique approach to drawing.

This workshop is suitable for complete beginners and experienced artists
 
David Begley is a visual artist, writer, film maker, botanical ink and charcoal maker, and an arts educator. He works through drawing, painting, monotype print, video, sound, and animation. His work has been presented nationally and internationally since 1996. His artworks can be found in the public collections of Contemporary Irish Art Society, Environmental Protection Agency, INTO, OPW, and Wexford County Council.

Experiential exploration: Slow Art Sketch trail  
Sat 16 May / 11am – 12pm / Book Here
Location: In the grounds of IMMA (Weather permitting) or in the gallery if weather unsuitable / Meeting point IMMA Reception

Moving through the site and connecting to place, participants follow a slow art sketch trail engaging with the materiality of the works and their physical presence in dialogue with the surrounding landscape. The focus is on observation as an active process and experiential exploration- testing, noticing and discovering through the act of drawing. The emphasis here, is on process- using drawing as a tool to think with: to follow lines, edges, shadows and structures as they shift in relation to your position in space, to interrupt habitual ways of seeing, and stay with what’s in front of us a little longer

The trail moves between IMMA sculptures Back of Snowman by Gary Hume, Untitled by Iran do Espirito Santo and Beneath the Bow by Michael Warren, and the surrounding green space, inviting participants to engage in responsive drawing that reveals new details, patterns and perspectives – no drawing experience required!

Attentive Witnessing: Still life in the Pavilion
Sat 16 May / 1 – 2pm / Drop in, no booking required. 
Location: People’s Pavilion, Front Lawn

How can noticing small details alter your sense of the larger environment? In what ways does observing closely change how you relate to place? 

For this workshop the focus is on being present with what is there, and on the subtleties, rhythms and relationships of plant life surrounding the People’s Pavilion and green space at IMMA.
No prior experience needed. This is an invitation to follow what captures your attention- through attentional witnessing, observation becomes a way of connecting to the local ecology and exploring the process of noticing and responding
allowing us to stay with what is there (attend to what is present).

Somatic dialogue through collective mark making and movement
Sat 16 May / 2 – 4pm / Drop in, no booking required
Location: People’s Pavilion, Front Lawn

Collaborative mark making to music in the Pavillion. Bring your energy and imagination to this playful, expressive workshop! Working together on a shared surface, participants will explore collective drawing to music, using natural materials and ink as tools. Each mark responds to sound, movement and one another, creating a drawing that’s alive with energy and interaction. No experience is needed- just come ready to move, draw and have fun!

Sat 23 May / 11–1pm / Book Here
Meeting point: Main reception 

Join Barry Kehoe, historian and member of IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team, for a bespoke exploration of IMMA and the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in search of the lost Priory of the Knights Hospitallers. Barry will take you on a historical journey unveiling the morphology of the hill terrace of Kilmainham from the earliest bronze age settlement, through to its monastic settlement and Viking Occupation. He will discuss the occupation by the crusading Knights Hospitallers before the re-engineering of the land to accommodate the baroque neo-classical Royal Hospital. 

Sat 23 May / 2 – 4pm / Book Here
Meeting point: Main Reception

Join us for a Biodiversity tour exploring the flora and fauna of the formal gardens and meadows of the IMMA and RHK site. 

This tour is led by Sandra Murphy, a member of IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team and an amateur wildlife photographer and Birder. This easy one-hour walking tour will explore part of the 48-acre IMMA and RHK site which includes the Meadows and Formal Gardens, to observe the birds, plants, and pollinating insects. Hand lenses and magnifying glasses will be provided. 

Sandra is the author of five blogs for the IMMA magazine, discussing the biodiversity of birds, butterflies and wild flowers found on our 48 acre site. 

After this tour, participants can return to IMMA for coffee and relaxed discussion. 

Deep listening workshop: Slow Art tour, Sound bath and creative response
Sat 23 May / 11am – 1.15pm / Book Here
Location: Matheson Creativity Hub 

Slow tour of Tarek Atoui: Sunflowers followed by deep listening Sound bath and Creative response 

Slow Tour 30 mins
Sound bath 1 hr
Creative response 30 mins

Beginning with a slow art tour of Tarek Atoui: Sunflowers, we will return to the Matheson Creativity Hub for a gentle, immersive workshop, combining a sound bath with a mindful creative practice. Moving into a guided sound journey to support deep listening, relaxation and embodied awareness, participants are then invited into a creative process inspired by visual music, an art form that explores how sound can become colour, movement and form.

Responding to the sensations, emotions and mental images that may have arisen during the sound journey, this practice supports participants in expressing their experience beyond words. It is not about the image created, but about letting sound move through the body and into marks on the page. No artistic experience is needed. The workshop is open, playful and accessible, offering a calming and creative way to process, reflect and connect through sound. 

Chloe McHugh (Sonas Sounds) is a sound and visual music artist, wellbeing practitioner and participatory arts facilitator. She creates immersive, participatory experiences that support wellbeing, creative expression and deep engagement through sound and embodied listening. Rooted in the concept of whole body listening, her work bridges sound, sensory perception and creativity. 

Chloe is deeply curious about how sound, space and emotion shape our inner and outer worlds, and how deep listening can help us feel more present, expressive and connected. 

For more than a decade, she has explored the art of sound and its uses across cultures. Her practice is informed by training across both the arts and wellbeing, including an MPhil in Music and Media, a Diploma in Mindfulness-Based Approaches, a Certificate in Sound Massage Therapies, and a BA in Audio Visual Media.” 

The Reparative Stitch: A Hand-Stitching Workshop with Ciara O’Connor
Sat 30 May / 11am – 5pm / Book Here
One Day Workshop
Location: Matheson Creativity Hub  

This immersive one-day workshop invites participants to explore the rhythmic, meditative act of hand-stitching as a vehicle for navigating personal history and connection. Through a series of intuitive hand-stitching exercises, we will focus on the repetitive nature of the stitch as a grounding practice, allowing ourselves the time to sit with our emotions. We will prioritize the journey of making over technical perfection, providing a supportive environment to sit with the “slow work” of healing/reflection. No previous drawing experience is required as image transfer techniques will be demonstrated on the day. 

Please note: Participants are encouraged to send an image of an object they would like to work from in advance of the workshop (perhaps something that reminds you of something or someone important – my stitched still life for my father had a can of WD40 and my mother’s had a vintage tea cup – it can be anything you like!) and a small piece of fabric (a scrap of clothing, an old handkerchief, or a remnant) that holds a personal connection, though all essential materials will be provided. 

Ciara O’Connor is a Kerry-based visual artist whose practice centres on free-motion embroidery as a medium for investigating identity, feminism, and the psychological architecture of recovery. By utilizing the rhythmic, repetitive nature of stitch, she recontextualizes domestic craft as a vehicle for processing trauma and navigating memory.  

Originally trained in painting and printmaking, O’Connor transitioned to a thread-based practice in 2019. Her current work integrates sculpture, installation, and video, fusing traditional textile heritage with narrative-led conceptualism. 

O’Connor’s work has been exhibited at the Crawford Art Gallery, the Royal Ulster Academy, and the Royal Scottish Academy. In 2025, she presented her landmark solo exhibition, Grief’s Current Shape, and was invited by the National Gallery of Ireland as one of three featured artists for National Drawing Day. Her practice has been profiled in FAIRE journal, Image Magazine, and the Irish Examiner, and was the subject of an extensive interpretive essay by acclaimed critic Cristín Leach. Beyond her studio, O’Connor facilitates nationwide workshops at institutions including Flux Studios and Artform School of Art. Her next solo show will take place at GOMA Gallery of Modern Art in 2027.