Sligo Gathering

Sadhbh is a free-lance producer from Kerry, based in Cork. She is an Associate Producer with Once Off Productions and Co-Artistic Director of ALSA Productions. Sadhbh holds an MA in Arts Management and Creative Producing (UCC) and a BA in Theatre and Drama Studies from MTU Cork School of Music. She also completed the Smock Alley Creative Producers GENERATOR training programme 2016/2017.

Sadhbh has been a committee member of TYAI since 2019 and is passionate about creating excellent work for audiences of all ages. Working with Once Off Productions as an Associate Producer since 2021, Sadhbh has worked with a variety of independent artists across theatre and live performance. She has produced work in Ireland and internationally, partnering with festivals and venues including Cork Midsummer, Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Abbey, the Everyman Cork, Graffiti Theatre and Irish Arts Center New York. She has produced two North American tours of Manchán Magan’s Arán & Im which has toured to 23 cities across 17 states and 3 provinces.

Lian Bell is a multidisciplinary artist, scenographer, and arts manager based in Dublin.

Her work has been seen in galleries, on stages, and in unexpected locations, indoors and out, in Ireland, France, the UK, and the US. Lian studied in Trinity College Dublin, Central Saint Martins, and the National College of Art and Design.

She have created scenography for performance, structured walks and conversations, photography, craft-inspired objects, and installations. Lian uses deliberately tactile materials, often found or reclaimed, in a way that renders the handmade, crafted nature visible. Works can also be ephemeral and only exist in photographic documentation, or other forms of even more unreliable documentation. The work often is attempting to hold onto, or commemorate, something that resists stasis and has already fallen apart.

As a manager across artforms Lian designs ways to build community, create space for deep thinking, and bring Irish artists in contact with their international counterparts. She takes a coaching approach to her work, and Lian also support artists and arts workers through one to one coaching. All aspects of her work overlap aesthetically and ethically.

Over 25 years of practice, Lian has been granted multiple funding awards by the Arts Council of Ireland, and have made work on residencies in Ireland (Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Sirius Arts Centre), France (Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris) and Finland (Arteles, Haukijärvi). She also won awards for her work as a feminist activist with #WakingTheFeminists.

Lian is a member of IETM international network for contemporary performing arts, the Irish Society of Performance Designers, Theatre Forum, and Visual Artists Ireland. Lian is a member of the Readers’ Advisory Committee of the National Library of Ireland, and a former board member of Rua Red. And since she spent most of her college years there, Lian is particularly delighted to have been made an Honorary Patron of DU Players, Trinity College Dublin.

Dr Tara Byrne is the Arts Programme Manager at Age & Opportunity, the national organization that provides a range of opportunities for older people who want to get more involved in arts and culture, sport and physical activity, civic engagement and personal development. She is also Artistic Director of Bealtaine, Ireland’s national festival celebrating the arts and creativity as we age. Having built a strong reputation over the past twenty five years as an arts manager, curator and director, she worked as Director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork from 2002- 2008, the Arts Council of Ireland (1996 – 2002) and many other arts organisations. Shehas also acted as an independent arts and cultural researcher, policy consultant, teacher and advocate, for both the arts, public service and university sectors.

Susan Coughlan is an experienced independent facilitator, consultant, Enneagram* specialist and coach in the arts sector.  She offers individual and group coaching, leadership and team development, learning and development supports, strategy work, board support, and enneagram* typing and coaching specifically for arts practitioners. Through her business Art of Change she has supported over a 150 Irish artists and arts organisations over the past 25 years to step into leadership, deepen resilience, adapt to change and reflect and learn from experience.

She is a deep believer in the power of community, connection and peer learning to counterbalance the isolation that solo-practitioners, leaders and entrepreneurs often experience. Susan supports artists and arts leaders to pause, see the bigger picture, reflect and learn from experience, step into agency, deepen resilience and navigate change and transition artfully.

She is a qualified Change Consultant, Relational Dynamics 1st coach, Enneagram Coach, and Action Learning Facilitator.  Previously Susan worked in a variety of arts related roles, including theatre production, venue management, touring, youth and community arts, and as an officer of the Arts Council in local arts development.

*The enneagram is a powerful tool for personal growth and transformation that combines ancient wisdom and modern psychology, and provides profound insights into nine distinct patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviours as well as the inner motivations behind them.

Moyra D’Arcy has over 30 years’ experience working in dance, theatre, film and events. In that time, she worked as a lighting designer, a production manager, an administrator and a producer. This included five years working on feature films in the production office and 15 years touring theatre nationally and internationally as production manager and lighting designer. Moyra took over Liz Roche Company as Executive Director in January 2016 and oversaw eight years of rapid growth.

Pea Dinneen is a playwright and cabaret artist from Dublin. Her work explores transgender identity in contemporary Ireland. Currently Pea is developing her play Cool Suburban Mam with Rough Magic theatre company, and working on an autobiographical cabaret play supported by The Abbey, Project Arts Centre and The Arts Council of Ireland. In 2023 Pea was awarded the Next Generation Award from the Arts Council, and The Next Stage Wild Card Award from Dublin Fringe. Pea is currently under commission with Kabosh theatre company to write a play which will open in November 2024 as part of the Belfast 2024 cultural celebration. Pea is a Six in The Attic artist with Irish Theatre Institute, where she also serves as the chairperson of the ITI Diversity and Access Council.

Adam Doyle is a visual artist from Bray, Co. Wicklow operating under the moniker Spicebag. He uses political satire and social commentary to interrogate issues within Irish society.

Adam is also a published journalist with bylines in The Irish Times, VICE News and The New Arab as well as a documentary filmmaker with his film “The Death of Terence Wheelock” featured in multiple film festivals.

Adam received national acclaim in Ireland for his controversial piece “The Eviction” and the subsequent debate on The Tonight Show. The piece is now preserved as a large mural in Dublin. Adam also painted the Free Derry Corner in solidarity with Gaza and has used his work to raise tens of thousands for charity.

Miranda Driscoll is a senior arts manager and multidisciplinary producer with 17 years’ experience across art forms. Most recently she was the Executive Director of Solas Nua, Washington, D.C. and Visual Arts Curator-in-Residence at the Irish Arts Center, New York. Between 2014 and 2019 she was Artistic Director of Sirius Arts Centre, Cork and Co-Founder/Director of the Joinery, Dublin (2007-2014). Her commissions, projects and collaborations have spanned across a diversity of disciplines including visual art, music, dance, literature, theatre and a film festival.

designer. Moyra took over Liz Roche Company as Executive Director in January 2016 and oversaw eight years of rapid growth.

Deirdre Dwyer is a theatre maker from Waterford. She designs for theatre, opera, dance and film alongside directing for theatre and writing and adapting work for young audiences. She is one of the six artistic directors of BrokenCrow, a multidisciplinary, ensemble led theatre company for whom she directed The Settling by Gavin McEntee for Cork Midsummer Festival 2023. She is a founder member of Shakespeare Squared, a new Waterford theatre collective, for whom she co-directed Twelfth Night, an outdoor production in September 2023.

She has been Artist in Residence in Garter Lane (2020-2022) and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick (2017 – 2020) where she focused on making work for young audiences.

Her training includes a BA in English and Drama and Theatre Studies, UCC, an MA in Theatre Design, RWCMD Cardiff and apprenticing as Designer on the Rough Magic SEEDS3 programme.

She has taught design, and related theories, to students in University College Cork, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and guest lectured at SETU and IADT.

She has previously worked with the Theatre Royal, Waterford, Everyman, Cork, Rough Magic, Junk Ensemble, Cork Opera House, Graffiti, Tinderbox, RSC Glasgow, Dublin Youth Theatre, Ulysses Opera Theatre, LAMDA, London, Cork Opera House, Spraoi and Waterford Youth Arts. She is a founder member of the Irish Society of Performance Design. www.deirdredwyer.com

Catríona Fallon has worked in the Irish arts sector for three decades in venue management, visual arts, festivals, and more latterly in sustainability and climate action. With Theatre Forum, she is the co-founder of the Green Arts Initiative in Ireland which has been responsible for: The Greening Venues Pilot Project 2020-2021, the Greening Arts Centres Project 2021-22, and the Greener Touring Project 2022-23.  Catríona was Project Manager of a Creative Climate Action project with Dingle Hub,  Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe – A Creative Imagining, (2021-22) on the Dingle Peninsula.  Catríona (along with JBEU and Native Events) is currently supporting the roll out of the Arts Council’s Climate Action & Environmental Policy and Creative Ireland’s Climate Action projects.  She is committed to supporting community engagement on climate change as the Treasurer of Kerry Sustainable Energy Co-op, the Secretary of the West Kerry Dairy Farmers’ Sustainable Energy Community and a member of Transition Kerry.

Maria Fleming is CEO of First Fortnight, Ireland’s mental health arts festival. She has over 20 years experience working as a general manager, producer, programmer and arts consultant with Ireland’s leading companies and theatre artists, including Dublin Theatre Festival, The Ark, Barabbas, Druid Theatre Company, Hot For Theatre, Donal O’Kelly Productions and Irish Modern Dance Theatre. Maria is currently Chair of NCFA the National Campaign for the Arts. She is on the board of the Irish Cancer Society and works as a volunteer with the society as Advocacy Champion for the Dublin Central Constituency. Maria is passionate about social justice and was involved with Waking The Feminists In Irish Theatre in 2015. In 2017 she travelled to the island of Chios in Greece to volunteer with refugee support group CESRT (Chios Eastern Shore Response Team).

Esosa Ighodaro is a Nigerian/Irish writer, director and vocalist. She makes work for stage and screen. Her work aims to highlight black talent and tell more varied stories of the black experiences in Ireland, using humour to explore more serious themes.

Esosa is a Resident Artist at Axis Arts Centre where she is developing new work over a 3 year residency. She is an Associate Artist with Civic Theatre, Tallaght where her work will focus on supporting more artists of colour to engage with the Irish Arts sector to create new work that speaks to their lived experience. Esosa is also a 2024 Resident Director at the Abbey Theatre, where she is engaged in a programme to grow her craft and skillset as a theatre director.

Esosa’s work for screen has been screened at film festivals across Ireland, US and Southern Africa, winning an audience choice award. With work for TV and film currently in development.

As a vocalist, Esosa works in a wide range of styles, in particular earning acclaim for her soulful renditions of traditional Irish music – soul ceol! She recorded her debut album “You Won’t Believe It” after touring extensively as a solo artist as well as a guest and backing vocalist. She has worked with a range of artists from local Gospel Choirs to Stevie Wonder.

Esosa serves on the board of The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny and The Lir Academy, Dublin.

Julie Kelleher is a Theatre Director and Creative Producer and is currently Artistic Director/CEO at Mermaid Arts Centre.  She holds a BA and an MA in Drama & Theatre Studies from UCC and was the 2022/23 Jerome Hynes Clore Leadership Fellow.

She was Artistic Director of The Everyman, Cork from 2014 to 2020. She has worked as an actor, director & producer with numerous Irish arts organisations and companies, including Painted Bird, Conflicted, BrokenCrow, Kinsale Arts Week, Cork Midsummer Festival, Hammergrin, Corcadorca, Meridian, Dublin Theatre Festival, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, The Performance Corporation, Gare St. Lazare, Once Off Productions, Landmark Productions, and Siren Productions.

Directing credits include: Found by Aideen Wylde (BrokenCrow/Cork Midsummer Festival 2023), The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh (The Everyman, 2018), Bluetooth by Rachel Thornton (The Everyman, 2018), Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry (The Everyman, 2018 remount, associate director), Dancing At Lughnasa by Brian Friel (The Everyman, 2017), The Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness (The Everyman, 2016), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig (The Everyman, 2015), Lovers by Brian Friel (The Everyman, 2015), Mantle by Ronan FitzGibbon (BrokenCrow, 2013).

Producing credits include the world premiere of Mick Flannery’s Evening Train musical (2019), the world premiere of Asking for It by Louise O’Neill (Landmark Productions and The Everyman, 2018), the world premiere of Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry (The Everyman, 2017) and the Irish premiere of Futureproof by Lynda Radley (The Everyman, 2017), and The Scarlet Letter, devised by Conflicted Theatre Company after Nathaniel Hawthorne (2013).

Julie joined the board of Graffiti Theatre Company in September 2017 and is the current chair. She sits on the Irish Playography Panel at Irish Theatre Institute and served on the board of Theatre Forum from 2016 to 2022, taking on the role of Chair in the final three years of her term.

Emmet Kirwan is an actor, playwright and theatre maker from Tallaght in Dublin. He studied at the Samuel Beckett Centre Trinity College Dublin. For over 20 years Emmet has worked in Irish and British Theatre, performing on many stages including Project Arts, The Abbey, The Gate, Donmar Warehouse, The National Theatre and The Soho, as well as working with leading Irish theatre companies such as Landmark, Rough Magic, Fishamble, THISISPOPBABY, Guna Nua, Pan Pan and Barabas.

Over the last ten years he has had a creative partnership with Project Arts Centre who have developed and produced his theatre work.

His most recent work as a playwright and performer is Accents – a spoken word verse play in a musical collaboration with Eoin French (who performs as Talos) and directed by Claire O’Reilly of Malaprop theatre company and the video shop set, hit comedy play Straight to Video for Landmark productions, directed by Phillip McMahon.

Emmet’s play Dublin Oldschool directed by Phillip McMahon won the Stewart Parker award for playwriting and has toured internationally and transferred to The Dorfman in The National Theatre for a sell out run. It was adapted into a feature film with Element pictures and opened in Irish and British cinemas in 2018 and international festivals including the London BFI.

He is also known for writing and starring in the RTE 2 comedy series Sarah and Steve for Accomplice television. Emmet also wrote the poetry sections and performed in THISISPOPBABY’s RIOT, which has played Vicar Street in Dublin and toured internationally to The Sydney Theatre Festival and Skirball New York. His poem Heartbreak is taken from this show and was adapted in to a short film that won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Short Film.

He was commissioned by The Gate Theatre Dublin for their Late at The Gate initiative to respond to John Osborne’s Look Back In Anger. For this he wrote and performed two new spoken word poems I love you woman and Mam and Dad are worried. The piece was directed by Oonagh Murphy

Other writing includes radio drama Wild West (2018) for BBC 4 (nominated for best radio drama award 2019 from the Writers Guild of Ireland), Straight to Video (2021) and Queen of The Pyramids (2019.) for Landmarks Productions.

He was also funded by the Arts Council to develop his play The Last Partholonian a play based on the first cycle of Irish Mythology and the youth gang culture. It received a performed reading directed by Oonagh Murphy.

All of Emmet theatre work has been kindly supported by the Arts Council.

Tara Mackin is a theatre maker & arts worker from Co. Louth. She is a recent graduate of a BA in Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies and Gaeilge from the University of Galway. During her degree, Tara’s research of community engagement through the arts sparked her interest in programming work for venues and festivals. She has immersed herself in the rich festival scene in Galway, interning & working with various organisations such as Galway International Arts Festival and Galway Theatre Festival. This year, she has had the opportunity to curate a festival programme for the Town Hall Theatre, Galway as part of LASTA 2024.

Heather Maitland is a researcher, consultant, author, trainer and an Associate of the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy at the University of Warwick.  She has been working in Ireland since 2004 with her current projects including supporting the Linenhall Arts Centre to co-design their new five year plan with local communities and stakeholders, enabling a small music festival to reengage with its local community, strengthen governance and establish a clear vision and strategic direction, researching pay and conditions of artists working in the health and social care sector and analysing customer data pre- and post-pandemic for An Grianán Theatre to contribute to the creation of a new audience development strategy.

Heather supported over 100 arts organisations as head of two of the UK’s audience development agencies and has nine books on audience development and arts marketing to her credit.

She conceived, designed and delivered Theatre Forum’s annual benchmarking study from 2005 to 2016 analysing the 19 million tickets bought by audiences at 65 arts festivals, theatres and arts centres.  She is therefore delighted to be involved in the second year of Theatre Forum’s Audience Insights project.

Orla Moloney is Executive Director at Project Arts Centre in Dublin.

Previous roles include Head of Arts Participation with the Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealíon; Director of Droichead Arts Centre; Director of the Bealtaine Festival; and Regional Development Manager at Music Network. Orla has also worked as an independent arts consultant across theatre, music, arts education, festivals, local authority arts offices, and has extensive experience in arts research, policy development, and evaluation.

Orla currently serves on the Boards of Performing Arts Forum and Music Network, and previously served on the Boards of Dance Limerick, Create, and Barnstorm Theatre Company.

Tara McGowan has been working as a cultural manager, producer & curator for over 25 years and has a wealth of experience with many cultural organisations and festivals including the English Theatre Berlin, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, The Model, Happy Days International Beckett Festival.  She is currently Director of Cairde Sligo Arts Festival, Sligo’s major annual multi-disciplinary arts festival.

Tara also works as an arts consultant/advisor with various organisations and with individual artists. She is also an occasional DJ and – together with John Graham – has set up Toast – a pop up night of electronic music in Sligo.

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival (Cairde) is Sligo’s premiere annual multi-disciplinary arts festival. The festival plays a pioneering leadership role in developing the arts in Sligo, in the Northwest, and nationally. We do the following:

Festival Programme: We present 8 days of exceptional arts activity across Sligo each July in buildings, on the street and in unusual outdoor locations.

Artist Development Programme: We offer seed funding, mentoring and support for artists to create and develop artistic ideas.

Community Engagement Programme: We bring artists together with communities to explore and develop artistic projects which are shared during festival time.

Lapree Ncube I’m Lapree Lala, a professional dance artist and instructor. I have been teaching Afrodance for the last 8 years across Ireland, namely Dublin, Galway, Waterford and Cork. With the classes I’ve connected with over 1000 students. I have worked with many community centres such as Ard Family Resource Centre, giving them courses of Afro culture and dance. I’ve also worked closely with the Irish Refugee council giving them a project called “Move your mood” to support young refugees on transitioning. I own a dance brand called South side moves where I teach regular classes and also perform with a few training dance artists that showcase the essence of what we are about. SouthSideMoves is all about doing what moves you. I’ve taught in all parts of ireland, embracing the culture of South African dance. I’ve been privileged to have taught Turkey , Vienna and hosted nights out in Barcelona. Lapree Lala is a professional dance artist and instructor. As a vibe creator, she has spread the vibes in multiple dance events throughout Europe, namely, Austria, Spain, Netherlands and more. As a community building enthusiast, Lapree has supported multiple organisations that assist displaced youth, refugees and asylum seekers through providing dance classes and engaging in a program called “Move Your Mood”. She has also worked with many community centres such as Ard Family Resource Centre, giving them courses of Afro culture and dance. She also owns a dance brand called South side moves where she teaches regular classes and also performs with a few training dance artists that showcase the essence of what we are about, she has performed for events such as ST Patrick’s Event in Guinness Storehouse, Culture Night, Breaking Codes, Wellfest and Electric Picnic. SouthSideMoves is all about doing what moves you.She has taught in all parts of Ireland, embracing the culture of South African dance.

Orlaith Ní Chearra is an actor and multi-disciplinary artist based in Kildare. Orlaith is co-director of the award-winning creative collective Fizz & Chips with credits of note including “Faitíos,” (2021) selected for Galway Film Fleadh, where it won the award for Best Cinematography in the short film category and the multidisciplinary show “Juno and The Jetpacks” (2023) that toured to the San Diego International Fringe Festival where it won the Best Solo Show Award. With a passion for storytelling, Orlaith enjoys working collaboratively and blending art forms including theatre, dance, film, music and street arts.

Ríonnach Ní Néill is part of AFA. Apartheid-Free Arts is a collective of artists and art workers based in Ireland dedicated to using our creativity and influence to advocate for a free Palestine and to oppose the normalisation of the Israeli occupation. We aim to create inclusive spaces for Palestinian artists and to support efforts towards global solidarity against apartheid and injustice.

Cian O’Brien

Cian has been Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre since October 2011. Prior to this he was Producer/Artist Development with Rough Magic Theatre Company and worked as a freelance producer with many of Dublin’s independent theatre and dance companies. He is a former Alternative Miss Ireland (2011). He is Chairperson of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Dead Centre Theatre and former Deputy Chairperson of the National Campaign for the Arts Steering Committee (2016-2022). Cian is a member of the Comité Strategique of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. In June 2024, Cian will step down from his role at Project to set up his own production, touring and consultancy company COBA: Cian O’Brien Arts.

Lynne Parker is Artistic Director and co-founder of Rough Magic Theatre Company.

Her most recent work for the company is Hilary Fannin’s Children of the Sun (after Gorky), a co-production between Rough Magic and the Abbey Theatre.

Other productions for Rough Magic include Freefalling by Georgina Miller (with Lime Tree | Belltable, Limerick), The Tempest by William Shakespeare (with Kilkenny Arts Festival 2022), All the Angelsby Nick Drake (with Smock Alley 2021), Solar Bones by Mike McCormack in an adaptation by Michael West (Kilkenny Arts Festival 2020, the Abbey Theatre 2022), Hecuba by Marina Carr (Dublin Theatre Festival 2019), Cleft by Fergal McEherron (2019), A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Kilkenny Arts Festival (Best Ensemble 2018), Melt (Dublin Theatre Festival 2017), The House Keeper (Best New Play 2012), Don Carlos (Best Production 2007), The Taming of the Shrew (Best Production 2006), Improbable Frequency (Best Production, Best Director 2004), Copenhagen (Best Production 2002), Pentecost (Best Irish Production, Dublin Theatre Festival 1995) and by Declan Hughes Digging For Fire (London Time Out Award 1992), New Morning, Love and A Bottle and Shiver.

Other theatre credits include You Belong To Me (a Once Off and Smock Alley production); Beowulf(Tron); Heavenly Bodies, The Sanctuary Lamp, Down The Line (Abbey); The Drawer Boy (Galway International Arts Festival); The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly (Theatre Lovett); Macbeth (Lyric); also productions for Charabanc, Druid, the Gate, the Bush, Corn Exchange, the Almeida, the Old Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Rep and Teatrul National Bucharest.

Lynne most recently received the 2020 Best Director Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for Solar Bones. She was awarded the Irish Times Special Tribute Award in 2008 and an Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College Dublin in 2010.

Ultan Pringle is a writer and actor from County Donegal. As a writer he has worked with An Grianán Theatre, The Balor Arts Centre and The New Theatre. With LemonSoap Productions he has written Marmalade Row, It Is Good We Are Dreaming, Piglet, Fruit and the recent Pistachio starring three time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie. His next play Boyfriends runs in June/July 2024 with The Project Arts Centre, An Grianán Theatre & The Earagail Arts Festival. He was a 2021 Activate Residency recipient in The Backstage Theatre where he began development with his collaborator HK Ní Shiordáin on a new queer musical, The Faggot Manifesto, which follows the messy lives of seven struggling twenty somethings in Dublin today. He was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in the UK for his play Lavender Hill and he wrote for the 2024 24Hour Plays at the Abbey Theatre. His previous acting credits include Falling For The Life Of Alex Whelan on RTÉ Two and a lot of Dad roles while in college. He is the current writer in residence with An Grianán Theatre.

Lianne Quigley is the co-ordinator of the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf and dreams of deaf productions playing to the mainstream theatre world. She has taken on a variety of positions at Dublin Theatre of the Deaf and elsewhere, including performer, director, writer, collaborating artist, and ISL tour guide. Since 2023, she works with Project Arts Centre to look at ways of expanding opportunities for Deaf artists and audiences. She is a Deaf activist and one of the leaders for the campaign for the legal recognition of her language, Irish Sign Language, which was achieved in 2017. Lianne is also chairperson of the Irish Deaf Society; the Deaf -led civil rights organisation. She was involved in setting up Disabled People Organisations (DPO) network with several representatives of disability-led organisations in late 2019. Her most recent collaboration project this year with Amanda Coogan was on the production of Possession.

Katy Raines MA MBA (CEO, Indigo-Ltd) is regarded as one of the UK and Ireland’s leading consultants on data-driven strategy for Cultural Organisations. She has developed and led research and implementation programmes for large and middle scale organizations throughout the UK and Europe.

During Covid-19 she developed and delivered the world’s largest collaborative dataset of cultural attenders’ attitudes to returning to cultural events, beginning with After-The- Interval, and working with over 800 organisations – capturing over ½ million responses from attenders, for which Indigo won several awards, and Katy won a UK national award for Outstanding Leadership (Covid Response Awards).

Working with Heather Maitland she ran ‘Missing Audiences Ireland’ in 2022 and appeared on RTÉ’s Culture Files to explore and discuss the findings.

Since then she has led Indigo’s growth, to launch Indigo Share – a new collaborative approach to research across the Arts and Culture and is a finalist in the British Data Awards 2024.
www.indigo-ltd.com @katyraines @indigoltd

Louna Sbou is director of Oyoun, the antidisciplinary arts centre in Berlin-Neukölln centering queer-feminist, decolonial and class-critical perspectives.

Her lived experience as a queer Muslim and first generation immigrant led to an unconventional journey exploring contemporary curatorship and non-Western approaches to collective making.

Louna curated numerous exhibitions, performances and festivals incl. Un:Imaginable (2022/23) in Rwanda and Bosnia with Hope Azeda, Moudjahidate* (2022) with Nadja Makhlouf, Maya Inés Touam and Sarah El Hamed, and Backbone (2021) with Mazen Khaddaj.

She was director of be’kech in Germany (2016-20), independent curator in Japan (2016-19) and program director at Station in Lebanon (2013-15).

Louna takes no bullshit though afraid of heights, a mother of two and vegan since 1991.

Ró Stack is a writer and theatre maker creating contemporary work that plays with form, text and humour. Her work straddles theatre, literature and live performance, drawing on influences such as zine culture, collage, text art and the lyric essay

Recent work includes: No Woman is an Island at Dublin Theatre Festival 2023 (writer/performer); Also for Roaring at Black Box Theatre, Galway, and Belltable, Limerick 2022 (writer/director).  She’s a current participant on Irish Theatre Institute’s Six in the (Virtual) Attic and the Pan Pan International Mentorship with Julien Hetzel. She was the Arts Council Jerome Hynes Fellow on the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme 2019/20.

Her writing has been published by various journals as well as RTÉ, New Hibernia Review and the Irish Times.

Emer Tyrell has been a Young Curator with Backstage Theatre since 2019. A graduate of English and Drama Studies in Trinity, she currently works as Marketing Assistant in The Civic Theatre, Tallaght, alongside doing PR and Social for the Longford First Friday Initiative. She has previously served as Literary Intern & Assistant with Fishamble: The New Play Company and Social Media Manager of Livin’ Dred Theatre Company. She has a theatre company with friends (Rare Antics) who had a show in Scene and Heard 2023.

Fadi Zmorrod was born in Jerusalem, Palestine. He discovered his passion for contemporary circus and later its crossover with movement and dance when he co-founded the Palestinian

Circus School in 2006. Fadi began his journey in contemporary circus through short courses

at the CNACFrance) and ESAC (Belgium). He then joined the Vertigo Circus School (Italy) in

2010, where he trained for two years to become a professional circus artist. Following

graduation, he performed in and toured with shows with PCS, Les Ballet C de la B

(Belgium), The Royal Flemish Theater, Cirkus Cirkör, Malmö Stadsteater, Cinque Blu,

Khashabi Theatre, Yaa Samar Dance Theater, and also began directing. He created, along

with a colleague, a performance mixing circus disciplines and dance entitled B-Orders, which

toured worldwide in festivals, and was an award-winning show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

He was also the Artistic Director of the Palestinian National Circus Festival, and as an artist

is specialised in the Chinese pole, floor acrobatics, and chair balance, and has recently

taken a deeper interest in the Cyr wheel. Fadi has taught in numerous capacities for almost

15 years in very different locations. He co-founded Doulab for Circus and Dance in 2017,

under which umbrella he worked on various youth projects with Walk Tanz Theater, Austria,

Willy Brandt Center, Palestine and others. Fadi moved to Ireland in late 2021, and has since

been a recipient of support from the Arts Council of Ireland, South Dublin County Council

and more. He has been continuing his work as an artist and as a mentor in various

capacities and locations throughout Ireland. He has just relocated from Dublin to Wexford,

where he is the 2023/24 recipient of the South East Venue Network Bursary Award

was born in Jerusalem, Palestine. He discovered his passion for contemporary circus and later its crossover with movement and dance when he co-founded the Palestinian

Circus School in 2006. Fadi began his journey in contemporary circus through short courses

at the CNACFrance) and ESAC (Belgium). He then joined the Vertigo Circus School (Italy) in

2010, where he trained for two years to become a professional circus artist. Following

graduation, he performed in and toured with shows with PCS, Les Ballet C de la B

(Belgium), The Royal Flemish Theater, Cirkus Cirkör, Malmö Stadsteater, Cinque Blu,

Khashabi Theatre, Yaa Samar Dance Theater, and also began directing. He created, along with a colleague, a performance mixing circus disciplines and dance entitled B-Orders, which toured worldwide in festivals, and was an award-winning show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

He was also the Artistic Director of the Palestinian National Circus Festival, and as an artist is specialised in the Chinese pole, floor acrobatics, and chair balance, and has recently taken a deeper interest in the Cyr wheel. Fadi has taught in numerous capacities for almost

15 years in very different locations. He co-founded Doulab for Circus and Dance in 2017, under which umbrella he worked on various youth projects with Walk Tanz Theater, Austria,

Willy Brandt Center, Palestine and others. Fadi moved to Ireland in late 2021, and has since been a recipient of support from the Arts Council of Ireland, South Dublin County Council and more. He has been continuing his work as an artist and as a mentor in various capacities and locations throughout Ireland. He has just relocated from Dublin to Wexford, where he is the 2023/24 recipient of the South East Venue Network Bursary Award