Editorial Panel

The Editorial Panel ensures long term, transparent and viable structures inform the work of artsandheath.ie. The Panel’s role is advisory and strategic. It makes recommendations on the tactical direction of the site in terms of content so that it is open, fair and transparent in its editorial decision making. The managerial details and processes rest with Réalta, the National Resource Organisation developing Arts and Health in Ireland. The Panel is designed to ensure broad and fair representation of the range of stakeholders and interests.

Claire Meaney (Chair) - Réalta

Claire Meaney is an artist, curator and arts manager. She is the Director of Réalta (formerly Waterford Healing Arts Trust) and was Assistant Director from 2007 to 2016. She has a BA in Fine Art, DIT (2002) and a Certificate in Youth Arts, NUI Maynooth (2006). In 2010, she completed an MA in Arts and Heritage Management at WIT. Her minor dissertation is titled The Artist’s Perspective of Making Collaborative Art in a Hospital Context in Ireland. In 2010, she was awarded an Arts & Health Bursary Award from the Arts Council to develop her arts participation practice.

Ann O’Connor - The Arts Council

Ann O’Connor is Head of Arts Participation with the Arts Council. Ann previously held the position of Arts and Health Advisor to the Arts Council and worked as an independent arts consultant, specialising in the area of arts and health and arts participation. Ann was Arts Coordinator with the Health Service Executive in Cork (2006 – 2009) and managed the Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture | Culture and Health Strand (2005 – 2006). She was Arts Development Worker with Blue Drum (2003 – 2005) and Sligo County Council (2000 – 2003), and was Cross Border Development Officer with Irish Rural Link (1997 – 2000).

Claire Flahavan - Healthcare Professional Representative

Claire Flahavan originally trained in medicine, and graduated in 2004 from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She went on to specialize in psychiatry, working across a range of mental health settings for over a decade. Claire completed an MA in Art Therapy at Crawford College (Cork) in 2013, and now works full-time as an art therapist. She is based primarily at St Louise’s Unit (CHI Tallaght, Dublin), a service for young people who have experienced sexual abuse or sexual assault, and also holds a post at the National Maternity Hospital. She enjoys teaching and writing about her work as a therapist.

Damien McGlynn - Create

Damien McGlynn is the Executive Director of Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts. Damien has worked in the cultural sector across Ireland, the UK and Europe for 15 years. He was previously the Ireland Director of Creative Lives, where he managed major public engagement projects and played a leading role in a number of Creative Europe and Erasmus+ projects. He is a trustee of Waterford Healing Arts Trust as well as Engage and Sydenham Arts in the UK.

Joan Dalton - Réalta Board of Directors

Joan Dalton has worked as an Arts Manager and Producer for over 30 years in the US, UK and Ireland. Her work has included both professional and community projects across many disciplines including photography, film, visual art, theatre, music, literature and architecture for organisations including Palace Pictures, Red Kettle Theatre Company, Christ Church Cathedral, Theatre Royal Productions, Waterford Festival of Architecture and The Walls Project.

Maud Hendricks - Artist Representative

Maud Hendricks is a socially engaged theatre artist co-creating new work with people in public places and institutions. As Artistic Director of Outlandish Theatre Platform, Maud develops new projects in arts, health and community contexts with Bernie O’Reilly. Maud works within a framework of the Theatre of Ruins and the Sublime everyday. They investigate lived experiences and co-create intersectional theatre landscapes using inter-media methods of co-creation. Maud seeks out the boundaries of social justice through methods of self-representation, aiming to diversify audiences.

Navin Hyder is a visual artist who is keenly interested in the inclusion of the arts within hospitals and other healthcare settings.

She holds a B.F.A from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Pakistan. In 2019, she became the first artist-in-residence at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. Here she spent three years working—through the pandemic— researching and experimenting to find the most relevant directions and approaches within such a niche space. The result was a large-scale public art installation for Culture Night 2021.

Navin is passionate about becoming involved in more ways, and in working with other artists and organisations with similar interests, to improve healthcare outcomes by incorporating art within the systems supporting them.

Pippa Little - Association of Local Authority Arts Officers

Dr Pippa Little is the Culture and Arts Officer and Creative Ireland Coordinator with Limerick City and County Council.

Sean O'Connor - HSE Representative

Sean O’Connor is the HSE Project Manager for Arts & Health. The purpose of the post is to support the National Health & Wellbeing Healthy Ireland Team to coordinate arts and health projects, ensuring they are evidence based and delivered to cost, time and quality requirements through the application of the required standards, frameworks, tools, and processes.

Image shown: Sheelagh Broderick

Sheelagh Broderick - Arts & Health Co-ordinators Ireland

Dr Sheelagh Broderick is an artist, writer and researcher who has worked in the health sector for nearly 20 years. Sheelagh is currently Senior Health Promotion and Improvement Officer with Cork Kerry Community Healthcare. Her 2015 PhD “(Mis)Interpreting Arts and Health: What Else Can an Arts Practice Do?” explores the field of arts and health in Ireland and the frameworks of assessment applied to them. Sheelagh has published many articles in different publication arenas including “Arts Practices in Unreasonable Doubt? Reflections on Understandings of Arts Practices in Healthcare Settings” (Arts & Health, An International Journal for Research, Policy & Practice, 2011).

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