Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Free, booking required. Book here.

Grounded in the principles of deep ecology and the work of scholar and activist Joanna Macy, this workshop draws on a framework for understanding the current meta-crisis that has shaped practice across environmental, educational, community, and creative fields. Macy’s Work That Reconnects offers a useful methodology for responding to ecological and social uncertainty that has been widely utilised in interdisciplinary contexts. 

Current research emphasises the need to complement political and structural change with radical personal and collective transformation through creative arts practice, embodied and somatic work, ecological attunement, emotional literacy, and cultural re-imagination in response to intersecting social, political, and environmental crises. 

Drawing on Indigenous and place-based knowledge systems of storytelling, repair, and continuity, alongside song and gentle somatic practices, the workshop positions these ways of knowing as collective tools for processing experience and situating the self within wider ecological and historical systems. Participants will explore their responses to change through reflection, creative exploration, and shared enquiry.

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Facilitated by Enagh Farrell
Free, booking required. Book here.

In response to Cecilia Vicuña’s solo exhibition Reverse Migration: A Poetic Journey, illustrator and artist Enagh Farrell will facilitate a drawing workshop. 

This workshop draws on Cecilia Vicuna’s Mourning Dialog, where vocal lament is used as a response to ecological loss, including the solitary call of the Curlew. The work reflects on vanishing glaciers, the decline of curlew populations, and wider environmental indifference to ecological change. 

In Ireland, the Eurasian curlew has experienced a dramatic population decline in recent decades, largely due to habitat loss and shifts in agricultural practice. It now mainly breeds in wet grasslands, upland bogs and rough pasture, nesting on the ground among low vegetation. 

The session responds to Vicuna’s expressions of grief and the curlews distinctive call as intertwined registers of ecological mourning. Participants will draw meadow plants associated with curlew habitats considering these as fragile yet still inhabited ecological systems 

No experience with art needed- All welcome!

Location: Online, Zoom Meeting
Free, booking required. Book here

IMMA Horizons presents Slow Art Online, a virtual tour to ignite your curiosity. From the comfort of your own location, IMMA Guides will lead you through an unhurried exploration of each artwork, encouraging you to engage your senses, deepen your connection with art and cultivate a more mindful approach to viewing.

During these online sessions, you’ll be invited to delve deeper into the works, taking time to reflect on what you see, what your eyes are drawn to, and how this work makes you feel.

Join us for a virtual, online IMMA slow art experience! Delve deeper, as we explore IMMA artworks by engaging the senses and fostering creative responses.

Please note that we will distribute the Zoom link to all participants one day prior to the scheduled session.

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Free, booking required. Book here.

Join artists Stephen Taylor & Maggie Madden for a series of workshops that explore the possibilities of painting and drawing natural and manmade objects in space.

The work of IMMA Collection artists including Charles Brady and Caroline Mc Carthy will inform the discussion of this genre of image making. We will widen the focus from colour, line and form to include structure and pattern. The still life set-ups will encourage participants to experiment and play with materials.

All experience levels are welcome, participants will be provided with materials.

Biography
Stephen Taylor is an Irish artist based in Dublin. He studied visual arts practice at IADT. Stephen’s paintings and drawings explore the strangeness of our optical experience, with ideas drawn from popular culture, memory, observation and imagination. His work has been acquired by collectors including the Office of Public Works, the Beacon Hospital, the British Embassy in Dublin, and Nova UCD.

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Facilitated by Enagh Farrell
Free, booking required. Book here

In response to Cecilia Vicuña’s solo exhibition, Reverse Migration, a poetic journey, illustrator and artist Enagh Farrell will facilitate a drawing workshop. 

Participants will be guided through the exhibition with a specific focus on Vicuña’s use of the Quipu – an ancient Andean record-keeping device made of knotted natural fibres. The Quipu acts as a narrative and record keeping tool to record stories and key experiences in communal memory. The varying knots and threads of natural fibre, used by the maker, act as a numerical differentiation and have specific meaning. As a medium, drawing can be viewed similarly: as a type of semiotic network with many interconnected lines of mark-making that link up to communicate an idea or narrative to the viewer. 

Participants will begin by sketching Vicuña’s Quipus within the gallery space before moving to the studio. Using locally sourced plant inks, participants will be invited to create, use colours, and add their unique lines to paper as creating a personal narrative. Invocation and prayer for the Earth are central to Vicuña’s work. Here, “prayer” is understood as an act of gratitude, reflection, or connection. Guided by these themes, participants will incorporate “private knots” or prayers into their drawings. While responding to the Quipu, we will create our own interconnected lines and personal narratives that trace our connection to the Earth, the climate crisis, and the nature of interconnectivity. Plant inks are often impermanent, fading over time reflecting the cycles of life and death. 

No experience with art needed- All welcome! 

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Free, booking required. Book here

In the Moment is a seasonal series of workshops for adults that involves mindfulness, exploring art in IMMA’s exhibitions and a responsive creative activity.It’s a welcome opportunity to take some time for yourself, to slow down, look closely, connect with the senses and create, in a relaxed atmosphere.These workshops are for anyone over 18 years of age. You could be a regular gallery goer, or someone who has never been to a museum before. No experience of art or mindfulness is necessary.

Participants are invited to sign up to a series of workshops, we ask that you commit to attending all three workshops in the series you sign up to. Places are limited, early booking is advised.

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Free, booking required. Book here.

Join artist Renata Pekowska and celebrate poetry and visual art at this special event presented by IMMA Horizons and Poetry Ireland. Together, we’ll consider how both poetry and visual art emerge from lived, sensory experience and explore new ways of seeing, feeling and making.

The event will begin with a short presentation and group conversation, followed by a hands-on workshop experimenting with new approaches and sharing discoveries in a supportive, collaborative setting.

Participants will explore hybrid and in-between formats such as cut-up poetry, collage and composite forms. This is an opportunity to work across disciplines, test ideas, and see what might emerge through playful, open-ended exploration.

Whether you come from a writing or visual arts background, or are simply curious, this session offers a welcoming space to connect, reflect and create together. Places are limited, to book click here.

With thanks to Poetry Ireland.

Location: Studio 10
Facilitated by Enagh Farrell
Free, booking required. Book here.

Focusing on themes in Vicuña’s work, such as eco-feminism, the reclamation of ancestral and indigenous traditions, and interconnectivity with the Earth. This workshop examines the history of the Sheela-na-gig in Ireland alongside Cecilia Vicunas paintings of women and earth goddess figures, using these works as a lens through which to re-read Irish Sheela-na-gig traditions. Participants will develop narrative drawings that engage themes of ecofeminist interrelation, incorporating plants associated with women’s histories and folkloric traditions into their visual language 

No experience with art needed – All welcome! 

Location: People’s Pavilion
Free, booking required. Book here.

Join Wayne for a fun, friendly, and inclusive Irish and Ceili dancing class! He has been dancing since he was five years old and has won many awards, including the Leinster Championship. 

In this class, we’ll cover the basic Irish dancing steps and learn some fun ceilí dances like Shoe the Donkey and The Walls of Limerick. This class is open to everyone — no matter your experience or background. For the past three years, Wayne has been organising Irish dance and ceilí classes specifically for the LGBTQ+ community, creating a warm and supportive space where all are welcome. Whether you’re completely new to Irish dance or have some experience, this is the perfect chance to have fun, learn something new, and connect with others in a joyful and inclusive environment.  

For more information on Wayne’s classes, you can check out this article: Meet the queer Irish dancer bringing LGBTQ+ friendly classes to Dublin • GCN https://gcn.ie/queer-irish-dancer-classes-dublin/ 

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Facilitated by Enagh Farrell
Free, booking required. Book here

In response to Cecilia Vicuña’s solo exhibition Reverse Migration, a poetic journey, illustrator/artist Enagh Farrell will facilitate a drawing workshop. 

This session examines weeds as forms of life positioned outside systems of cultivation and care. Participants will engage with plants that are commonplace yet often removed from gardens and managed spaces, considering their relationship to marginality, extraction, and human systems of control. Many of these plants have long histories of medicinal use within traditional herbal practices, despite being routinely removed or overlooked. 

Considering the relation between various works in Vicuna’s solo exhibition, participants will attend closely to the plant’s contours and structures through a sculptural approach to drawing, as leaves begin to curl and petals shift over time, making visible both their fragility, resilience and changeability. The act of drawing becomes a way to examine how certain forms of life are rendered visible, invisible, or disposable, while positioning weeds as indicators of wider environmental and cultural systems.  

In a similar way, Vicunas found sculptures engage discarded materials and explore our relationship to objects once valued, but now disposed of and washed away 

The workshop unfolds through both observation and shared discussion, holding space for reflection on plants and our changing relationship to them, as much as on the process of drawing itself.  

No experience with art needed- All welcome! 

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Free, booking required. Book here.

In this workshop, Finn will guide participants through the radical, playful world of zine-making as a tool for queer expression. The session will combine hands-on, messy collage with a brief introduction to queer theory and zines as acts of radical creation, norm-disruption, and anti-mainstream storytelling. 

This will be a low-pressure, welcoming space designed for unapologetic play, where identity and imagination will run wild. We will prioritize the process over perfection, embracing raw edges, gluey fingers, and the beautiful mess of DIY creation. 

No prior art experience is needed. Everyone will leave with their own handmade zine, a sense of connection, and a spark of inspiration.  

All materials will be provided, but feel free to bring your own scraps, “trash,” or ephemera to use yourself or share! 

Meeting Point: Main Reception
Free, drop in. More details here.

Over the school holidays, enjoy a family visit to IMMA with some creative time during the summer break. Children and grown-ups can enjoy exploring artworks, and participate together in making your own artwork, led by IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team. Free and drop-in. 

Location: Matheson Creativity Hub
Free, All welcome, Drop In

Visit IMMA on Sunday afternoons and enjoy some creative time with your family. Based on artworks from IMMA’s exhibitions, families can discover their inner artist while having fun and creating amazing masterpieces. Led by our Visitor Engagement Team, this is a wonderful family experience. Art materials are provided by IMMA.

These workshops will take place in our Project Spaces. Upon arrival, please ask a member of our staff at reception in the Main Building for directions to the workshop.

Our Explorer at Home activities are also available for you to discover, there are lots of creative activities for families to do at home.

To get the latest updates about any upcoming Explorer events, follow our social media channels and join our mailing list for families.