Community of Practice Socially Engaged Art Event
This event is delivered by Cork County Council in partnership with Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, with support from Creative Ireland.

Community of Practice Socially Engaged Art Event 

Arts and Health Networking Morning

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre Thursday 25 June 2026 · 10:00am – 12:30pm with optional activities from 1:00pm.

Registration: Registration is through Cork County Arts Office: Arts and Health Networking – Fill out form

You are warmly invited to a morning of networking, conversation, and shared learning with socially engaged artists, arts workers, social prescribing link workers, health care professionals, and others working across the arts and health sector. The event includes presentations from artists on their current arts‑and‑health projects, followed by opportunities to connect and participate in optional afternoon activities.

Programme:

10am: Arrival  

10.15: Welcome with Emma Dwyer, Assistant Arts Officer at Cork County Council

10.20: Networking Activity with Sadhbh Moriarty

10.50: ‘How do you approach socially engaged projects?’ Presentation from socially engaged artist Kevin McNally  

Kevin McNally is a musician and researcher from west Cork with research interests in ecomusicology, ethnomusicology, popular music and community music. In his composition and facilitation he focuses on work that involves non-professional musicians and encourages the use of sound to forge interconnection between humans and our ecosystems. As a community musician, he leads a gamelan ensemble in Skibbereen, Co. Cork as part of an innovative arts for health scheme. He has recently completed a PhD in arts practice, which considers sound as a form of ecological perception by highlighting the vibratory resonance that links performers, instruments and listeners in any sounding event.

11.10: Teas and Coffees in the Courtyard Gallery

11.40: Justine Foster, Programme Manager at Uillinn presents the Arts for Health Timeline with time for discussion

Arts for Health Partnership Programme is based in West Cork and provides a managed arts programme for older adults accessing healthcare services, since 2005. The programme takes place in widespread, rural locations including Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, five Day Care Centres: Bantry, Castletownbere, Clonakilty, Dunmanway, Skibbereen; five Community Hospitals: Castletownbere, Clonakilty, Dunmanway, Schull, Skibbereen, Bantry General Hospital, St. Joseph’s Unit, in community settings and more recently, at home. Managed by Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Arts for Health runs all year round and is delivered by a team of professional artists from different disciplines.

12.00: ‘How do you make connection in socially engaged work’ Presentation from socially engaged artist Toma McCullim  

Toma McCullim is an artist who describes herself as an Artivist—an activist artist. Her work is driven by a deep commitment to social justice and environmental ecology, and centres on participatory practices that empower collaborators to amplify their own authentic voices. Trained as an anthropologist of art, Toma’s practice is grounded in lived experience, collective process, and care-led methodologies. She is particularly interested in the fundamental question: what does art do? Working across walking, gathering, storytelling, and co-creation, her projects operate as catalysts for connection, reflection, and action, stimulating creative change-making at individual, communal, and ecological levels.

12.20: Closing conversation.

12.30: Break for 30 minutes

1:00pm – Exhibition Tour

Annual Members and Friends Exhibition A 45‑minute tour led by Public Engagement Assistant Sylwia Migdal, introducing work by emerging and established artists from West Cork and beyond. The tour continues through the residency studio corridor, meeting artists Julie Louise Bacon (Almanac 2026 CE), Siobhan McGibbon (Decomposition is Devotion and the Land Longs for You), and Julie Brennan, who are developing new work while engaging with local audiences.

1:45pm – 2:30pm Conversation & Creative Response

Following the tour, Sylwia leads a relaxed discussion and creative response session in the Level 2 workspace, emphasising community engagement and shared reflection.

Sylwia is an artist with a BA in Visual Art and an MA in Art and Environment from Technological University Dublin School of Creative Arts. Her practice focuses on contemporary and conceptual art with a strong interest in the natural environment and youth engagement. Originally from Poland, she has lived in West Cork for over 20 years and works as Public Engagement Assistant and Youth Arts Facilitator at Uillinn, delivering workshops, tours, schools programmes, and public events.

1:00pm – 2:00pm  Workshop with Dance Artist in Residence, Esmeé O’Brien

Drawing on Esmee’s practice and residency explorations, this workshop explores guided improvisation, and movement responding to given stimulus.

Esmeé O’Brien is a dancer currently studying on the Contemporary Dance bachelor’s programme at the University of Limerick. She has just entered her third year of the course and is completing her cooperative work placement at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. Esmeé has performed at Hunt Museum in Limerick, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Everyman Theatre in Cork, Cork Opera House, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, and University of Limerick, Irish World Academy.

This event is delivered by Cork County Council in partnership with Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, with support from Creative Ireland.