Posted Feb 4, 2026
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...
Posted Feb 4, 2026
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...
Posted Jan 13, 2026
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...
Posted Nov 27, 2025
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...
Posted Sep 30, 2025
Applications have opened for Experience 2025: An Introduction to Arts, Health and the Older Person. This half-day learning programme for artists and arts practitioners of all disciplines takes place online this year, on Thursday 4 December, from 2pm-5.30pm Experience 2025 will aim to outline the essential elements involved in working with older people in an arts and health context, and will feature presentations by some of the most experienced and inspiring practitioners working in this specialised field of practice, including Keynote Speaker Dr Anne Basting. Experience 2025 is presented by Age & Opportunity, the national organisation working to enhance wellbeing for older people, and Réalta, the national resource organisation dedicated to developing arts + health in Ireland. Further details below. Places are limited to 30 and cost €10.00 each and will be allocated to suitably qualified/ experienced individuals on a first come, first served basis. Experience 2025 is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE. This is the fifth year of Experience, which was devised in 2021 in response to the need for more training and practical orientation for artists and arts practitioners of all disciplines who already have experience of participatory work in a health context, and who are interested in developing their practice to include working with older people. Participants over the last four years have described the programme as “tangible, well-paced, relevant”; “profoundly encouraging and inspiring”, “refreshing and far-reaching”; “calm and inclusive”; “full of great advice and ideas”; and “so well put together, beyond what I imagined,” with people highlighting the expertise and passion of the speakers, and the opportunity to interact with fellow artists. In...
