Living Arts Project 2026

SONYA WESTON

Lead Artist, Castlebridge National School, Wexford

Sonya Weston graduated in 2019 from IT Carlow Wexford Campus School of Art and Design. Her specialist areas of research are in social inclusion, socially engaged art practices, and creative projects that empower communities. Her multidisciplinary practice includes photography, film, print, sculpture, and installation.

Sonya’s artworks have been exhibited in Lismore Castle Arts as part of Origins 2019, Wexford Arts Centre, Creative Hub Wexford, and other public sites around Wexford town. Since graduating, she has worked with a number of publicly funded and private organizations in her capacity as a socially engaged artist. These include the Wexford Mental Health Association, the Collective Sensory Group, Wexford Arts Centre, and national schools throughout the county. Sonya believes that creativity gives form to the imagination and is an alternative means of expression.

KATE TYRRELL

Assistant Artist, Castlebridge National School, Wexford

Kate Tyrrell has been an educator and practicing craftswoman for over a decade. She had a solo exhibition titled Found at the Presentation Arts Centre in 2021. 

Kate’s work has roots in her home by the sea and takes on a therapeutic nature. Seaweed, shells, and organic matter are collected and go through an industrial curing process before use. Her process is habitual, reminiscent of the collecting habits of an animal preparing for winter. This process of collecting, taking home, and being with the items gives her work an unusual, familiar, almost historic quality.

DEIRDRE MEEHAN-BUTTIMER

Lead Artist, Clonroche National School, Enniscorthy

Deirdre Meehan-Buttimer graduated from Wexford Campus School of Art & Design, SETU, in 2016 and successfully transitioned to build a strong participatory arts practice.

Her practice is experimental in nature, driven by an intuitive and curious approach. Her processes have a strong photographic and drawing element, using inks and mixed media. She uses non-standard surfaces and everyday objects as ‘mark making’ tools and facilitates others to narrate their stories in a collective/collaborative way, using their everyday possessions.

Deirdre was lead artist on the Living Arts Project in 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. She was the recipient of a number of Wexford County Council’s Creative Communities Awards and undertook projects with Wexford Women’s Refuge, Windmill Therapeutic, and Soroptimists International, Wexford. 

SHANNON JADE WILSON

Assistant Artist, Clonroche National School, Enniscorthy

Shannon Jade Wilson is a multidisciplinary artist, creative producer, and educator working across printmaking, sculpture, murals, and media. Her practice weaves Irish folklore, nature, and material culture with themes of haunting, grief, memory, sustainability, and well-being. She creates immersive worlds that invite reflection and participation.

Trained in visual arts at NCAD, with an MSc in Visual, Material & Museum Anthropology from the University of Oxford, some recent achievements include a public mural for Irish Life developed through workshops with Scoil Chaoimhin pupils; a creative sustainability programme with Fingal County Council; artist-in-residence for Richmond Barracks; and arts-learning programmes for EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum.Through her residencies and community projects, she aims to make creativity accessible for all.

DAVID BEGLEY

Lead Artist, Curracloe National School, Wexford

David Begley is a visual artist, writer, filmmaker, and arts educator. He works through drawing, painting, monotype, video, sound, and animation. His monotype prints have been selected for exhibitions at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London; RHA, Dublin; and Oriel Mostyn, Wales.

David has received Arts Council and Artlinks awards for his visual art and creative writing. His animations have been screened in galleries and festivals in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Greece, and France. His artworks can be found in the collections of the Contemporary Irish Art Society, EPA, INTO, OPW, and Wexford County Council.

HANNEKE VAN RYSWYK

Assistant Artist, Curracloe National School, Wexford

Hanneke van Ryswyk is a visual artist whose work is rooted in a deep connection to nature, gardening, and the living landscape. Alongside her studio work, she creates school gardens to teach children how to grow food from seed, care for biodiversity, and be aware of their environment, nurturing both practical skills and ecological awareness. Her paintings explore the vulnerability, beauty, and resilience of the natural world, while acknowledging the increasing effects of extreme weather on the land and the sea. Through imagined and observed landscapes, she uses an abstracted, expressive aesthetic to invite reflection on our relationship with a changing planet.

David and Hanneke run an organic garden at Curracloe NS, County Wexford. They facilitate Biodiversity walk and draw activities in Wexford schools.

LAURA FLOOD

Lead Artist, Scoil Mhaodhóig, New Ross

Laura Flood is a Permaculture artist.Permaculture is a system of creating permanent, sustainable social and ecological cultures. Laura holds a certificate in Permaculture Design and Teaching Children Permaculture and incorporates this knowledge into workshops by teaching children about topics such as composting and using sustainable materials like second-hand fabrics. An important factor for Laura is creating an environment that fosters a creative approach to problem-solving. She encourages conversations and debate in her workshops and will hint at the roads we could take that lead closer to caring for each other and the earth.

MAYUMI NAKABAYASHI

Assistant Artist, Scoil Mhaodhóig, New Ross

Mayumi Nakabayashi is a Japanese land artist who has been living in Ireland since 1999. She creates geometric patterns and structures using natural materials. Her works are ephemeral and often site responsive. She creates artworks that feel harmonious in the landscapes, incorporating the weather conditions and using the found materials. She is also a community artist who visits schools and groups to create collaborative environmental art as a way to strengthen the groups’ cohesion. Her passion lies in co-creation on all levels – with nature and with people. Her recent explorations include consent education, reconciliation, and grief work through creativity.