Project Description

I was awarded a community artist residency with glór for 2026. This was a very special opportunity for me for a number of reasons. As a family carer myself I am not in a position to apply and take up artist residencies as these involve staying elsewhere in a place for a period of time more to work on your practice, which I am not able to do. So a residency in my locality that allows for the time to develop, experiment, and foster relations with members of the community is a huge opportunity. I wanted to work with these particular groups because

For the residency I am working with a number of local community-based groups to produce a new body of work to highlight the lived experiences of two groups: people living with disabilities and family carers in contemporary Ireland. 

The goal of the project is to use experimental drawing as a tool to discuss and communicate hard topics, to learn about each other and how we can facilitate a better lived environment for all, using the power of visual art to communicate issues and challenges in an impactful way.

Why drawing? Drawing is deeply democratic- you just need something to draw with and something to daw on. Everyone can draw. If you can hold a mark making tool and press it down onto some sort of surface then you can draw. Drawing transcends language. You don’t need expensive tools. It retrains the brain in how you think. I have a long standing drawing practice and I believe in its power as a tool to unify and to spawn creative ways of thinking.

Part of the residency is facilitating drawing workshops and discussions regularly in glór and off-site with the following groups:

Clare Leader Forum – a Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO) run by Disabled People for Disabled People in County Clare.

Clare Crusaders Children’s Clinic – who provide free therapy and specialist treatment to over 450 young people with special needs in County Clare.

Family Carers Ireland – a not-for-profit nationwide organisation who support family carers and young carers through the provision of free emergency care planning, counselling, specialised training and education programmes, wellbeing support, crisis management, emergency respite/respite provision, advocacy, peer support groups, information on rights and entitlements and many other worthwhile initiatives.

I myself am a carer to a family member with a disability. This has afforded me much experience of the endless daily challenges and the structural marginalisation faced by both disabled individuals and carers — ranging from social invisibility to economic undervaluation.

I am also very interested in societal labelling and the ‘othering’ of those with disabilities, and in a similar pattern, general societal assumptions made around carers and the job of caring.

I believe these two factions of society are two of the strongest and most resilient out there in their lived experience and the work that they do.

So far I have held workshops in glór with Clare Leader Forum and have been liaising with the great people of Family Carer Ireland- specifically the Ennis office and I also attended a very interesting carers meeting in Kilkee. Having met with their parents to explain what I am doing I am clicking off sessions with my Clare Crusaders group in Clare Crusaders buildings this coming Saturday. What I have learned so far about my groups:

Clare Leader Forum: A group of strongly political, opinionated, brave individuals who have a lot to say, like a laugh and all have lived experience of being disabled in contemporary Ireland.  The main themes that have arisen so far through our sessions is about the ‘othering’ of being disabled- how others treat them-  and the economic and political/socio economic challenges of being disabled- like managing disability payments and entitlements.

Family Carers– also a strong, tough bunch of people- really interesting to have heard the stories from those I have met so far- the main challenge at present is availability- they are so busy managing caring and work they have little time for outside projects.

Clare Crusaders– the group I will be working with is mainly 16+ and under 20. They all have intellectual disabilities and their parents tell me how society treats them and the other points raised as pertinent by the Clare Leader Forum are on the whole not issues for them. So I am looking forward to starting to work with them to see what we come up with.

Below are some photos of the first group session with Clare Leader Forum