UPDATE 28.04.2026 : Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026 is fully booked.  Thank you to everyone who has booked – We look forward to seeing you in Carrick-on-Shannon. 17.04.2026: Programme Announcement We are delighted to announce the full programme for this year’s Arts + Health: Check Up Check In, which takes place on Thursday 30 April at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. Check Up Check In promotes solidarity among arts and health practitioners.  This year’s event provides opportunities for participants to share their experiences, exchange ideas and support and inspire each other in their practice through a range of themed presentations, including: – Keynote Address by Karrie Marshall, artist, educator and author, on the theme The Essential Power of Creativity and Compassion in Healthcare. – Sticking Points: What to do when you get stuck – Artists and healthcare professionals share challenges they have faced in their work and look for solutions to overcome them, featuring Dr Sheelagh Broderick, Arts & Culture Lead, HSE South West; Declan Kennedy, Visual Artist (County Wexford) and Olivia Hassett, Performance Artist (Dublin). – In the Moment – A case study conversation about the Réalta/Waterford Healing Arts programme at the South East Palliative Care Centre, at University Hospital Waterford, presented by Mairead Bluett, A/ Director of Nursing, SEPCC, Writer Lani O’Hanlon, Visual Artist Caroline Schofield and Maeve Butler, Programme Manager & Assistant Director of Réalta. – Introduction to the Arts + Health Policy & Strategy Consultation, by Catherine Abbott, Arts + Health Manager with The Arts Council. – What’s My Practice? A series of workshops examining methodologies employed in collaborative / participatory...

Booking opens for Réalta’s Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026: – Thursday 30 April in The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon; – Keynote Speaker: Karrie Marshall – Book your ticket here We are delighted to announce details for Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026.  The annual national gathering of the arts + health sector in Ireland, Arts + Health: Check Up Check In this year will take place on Thursday 30 April at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, and will feature a keynote address by artist, author and educator Karrie Marshall, in addition to presentations by some of the most exciting, innovative and creative practitioners working in arts + health in Ireland today.  The fee for the full day, including lunch, is €30.  Book your ticket here  Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026 is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE, with additional support from the Arts Office of Leitrim County Council. The ‘go to’ event for artists, healthcare professionals and arts + health practitioners, Arts + Health: Check Up Check In promotes solidarity, practice sharing and exchange, and is open to anyone working in, or interested in learning more about arts + health.  For her Keynote Address, Karrie Marshall will draw on her experience working at the intersection of arts, health and social care, and her decades of practice in social-engaged arts, healthcare, adult education, and supporting individuals, staff and leaders under pressure.  Karrie’s work explores how creativity with compassion can measurably improve wellbeing and quality of life, and the work of the arts-based company she founded, Creativity in Care CIC, in...

Many people working in arts + health work alone, which can feel isolating and disheartening. This Arts + Health Mixer invites artists, healthcare professionals and arts + health managers working across this field of practice to come together to share experiences, explore collaborations and build connections through conversations, short presentations and creative activities. This event is part of the Well Festival of Arts & Wellbeing. The festival celebrates the health benefits of participation in the arts by all. Presented by Réalta (Waterford Healing ArtsI in partnership with Garter Lane Arts Centre and Waterford City and County Libraries, the Well Festival champions the links between arts and wellbeing and increases public engagement through a wide-ranging programme of innovative free events for all ages across many art forms, including music, art, dance, film, poetry, theatre and literature. See www.wellwaterford.com  Wed 18 Feb, 3pm-5pm Réalta Centre for Arts + Health, University Hospital Waterford, Dunmore Road, Waterford Adm free, booking required: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/ info@realta.ie/ 051 842664 This event will be followed by Thank you for hearing me Special Preview with Q&A at 5.15pm in the same venue. This powerful short film explores how our voices shape the way we live, connect, and are heard – or unheard – in the world, and how age, accent, class, gender, health and history form our unique vocal identities. A collaboration between Embrace Music and Darn Skippy Productions, funded through the Arts Council’s Arts Participation Project Award 2025, with support from Riverbank Arts...

The Well Festival partners are thrilled to welcome Regius Professor Rose Anne Kenny for the Annual Réalta Keynote Event, to talk about the significance of the arts in her life. Rose Anne Kenny is Regius Professor of Physic* (Medicine) and holds the Chair of Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin. She is the founding Principal Investigator of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), Ireland’s largest adult population study on the experience of ageing in Ireland. Regius Kenny is the Director of the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA) at St James’s Hospital, where she is also director of a large national falls and syncope and autonomic function laboratory. She is also Director of the new WHO Collaborating Centre for Longitudinal Studies in Ageing and the Life Course. A Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, London and Ireland, Regius Kenny is also a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine Ireland, and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Her many books include Age Proof – The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life. Regius Kenny will be in conversation with Jennifer O’Connell, Opinion Editor and columnist with The Irish Times, and proud Waterford woman. *Physic: The art or practice of healing disease Réalta Centre for Arts + Health, University Hospital Waterford, Dunmore Road, Waterford Mon 16 Feb, 6pm Adm free but booking required. To book: Réalta Annual Keynote: Why Arts? Regius Professor Rose Anne...

Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026 will take place on Thursday 30 April in The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick on Shannon, County Leitrim.  The ‘go to’ event for the arts and health (A+H) sector, Check Up Check In is organised by Réalta, and features presentations by some of the most exciting and inspiring practitioners working in arts and health today.  Arts + Health: Check Up Check In is open to healthcare professionals, arts practitioners and anyone interested in learning more about this exciting field. Open Call: Réalta is seeking submissions from arts and health practitioners to deliver a What’s my practice? workshop at Check Up Check In.  The What’s My Practice? workshop model examines methodologies employed in collaborative/ participatory arts + health practice in Ireland, across different artforms.  All artforms welcome. To submit a workshop proposal, please complete this online application form by 1pm on Friday 27 February 2026. Réalta is the national resource organisation dedicated to strengthening and advancing arts + health in Ireland. Réalta manages artsandhealth.ie, an independent information hub and the Waterford Healing Arts programmes. Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026 is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE and supported by Leitrim County Council Arts Office. Further details about Arts + Health:  Check Up Check In 2026 and booking information will follow in due course on www.realta.ie Image credit: Artist Luci Kershaw leads a ‘What’s My Practice?’ workshop at Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2025.  Photo by Paul...

Réalta, the national resource organisation dedicated to developing arts + health in Ireland, is delighted to announce visual artist Siobhán Clancy as the recipient of the Réalta Arts + Health Research + Development Residency 2025. Funded by the Arts Council, this residency supports artists from all disciplines to deepen and develop their arts + health practice through a focused period of research and creative exploration.  Siobhan will be based at the Réalta Centre for Arts + Health at University Hospital Waterford (UHW) for the duration of the residency, which will run in two phases: from 8-12 December and 16 February to 06 March 2026. Siobhán’s visual art practice focuses on community-building and justice through collaboration.  While her current artistic focus is lived cancer experience, informed by her own treatment and recovery, Siobhán’s experience in arts and health spans over a decade of collaborative art with children and young people living with long term health conditions in arts, clinical and community health settings with Helium Arts.  She has also co-developed arts actions, works and performances on reproductive health and justice.  Siobhán earned a distinction in Arts and Health at Canterbury University in 2019. During her residency, Siobhán will explore themes of identity and representation, shaped by her personal experience of cancer and inspired by regenerative approaches to climate action.  She plans to engage with cancer care staff and patients through The Somnambulance, a programme of workshops, conversations and participatory activities around health, environment, the language of cancer, transformation and creativity. Siobhán will invite people to join her in exploring local lore and legend, and in looking at myth-making practices as...