Meet our board, staff and studio holders

Janice Hough programmes and develops IMMA's Residency & Artist Programmes to support opportunities for studio research, production and the public dissemination of practice, all carried out in the immersive environment of the museums onsite live and work spaces. Residency and
artist projects are curated through various strategies such as invited, open calls, and national / international partnerships and exchanges. Hough has worked on many group and solo projects, a selection of which include Precaution, 2005; Action All Areas, 2013; Unseen Presence, 2014; More Than One Maker, 2015; A Fair Land, 2016; Wilder Beings Command and 38th EVA International at IMMA. Hough was a founding member of VISIT, a Dublin city-wide open studio event and a founding member / regional representative of Artists Studio Network Ireland. Some past presentations include TransCultural Exchange's Conference in Boston; Location One, New York and she has moderated numerous studio discussions at IMMA.

Appointed 20/6/2015

Joanne is an arts writer, editor and researcher based in county Roscommon. She has recently been appointed Features Editor of the Visual Artists' News Sheet, where she will commission and develop new writing for an Irish arts readership. She is curious about ethnographic and archival functions of the arts, as well as the role of arts education and research in generating new forms of knowledge. Joanne is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and a regular contributor to international arts publications including Art Monthly and Frieze. She was previously assistant editor for the online resource publicart.ie and coordinator of the Roscommon Visual Artists Forum (RVAF). Joanne won 'VAI/DCC Critical Writing Award 2012/13' for her extended essay 'Commemoration – A Forward-Looking Act'. She has previously developed research reports and policy documents for
organisations such as 126 Artist-Run Gallery, Kilkenny Arts Office and Youth Work Ireland.

Appointed 19/12/2016

Eileen is an education professional with expert knowledge of the higher education landscape both nationally and internationally and has an in-depth knowledge of the operation, structures and dynamics of higher education institutions. In addition to having studied and worked abroad gaining language and inter cultural skills, she has managed the Erasmus+programme for IT Sligo and has extensive experience of building and maintaining relationships in an international context. Currently
undertaking a PhD with NUIG, she is interested in how creativity can be applied in higher education contexts in order to invigorate the teaching and learning process and enhance regional sustainability. Eileen is a writer and is the 2016 Leitrim Guardian Literary Award winner. Current projects include a performance installation examining the dynamics of motherhood and ageing.

Appointed 19/12/2016

Joel Smith has worked in the community sector for over fifteen years with a focus on Men's Health. He is also a writer and photographer. His book Lost at Sea, a literacy book for prisoners has been published by SPCK. Joel has written a number of short plays performed by the North Leitrim Men's Group. He acted in and wrote the script for the North Leitrim Men's Group film "How the Púca got his tail back". Joel has worked on many cross border projects including Peace projects and INTERREG.

Appointed 22/06/2019

Paul is based in Sligo and works in County Leitrim. He has many year’s experience in the development and implementation of marketing, communications, funding and programming strategies for cultural organisations and in delivering organisational alignment across audience development and engagement objectives for artistic programmes. These programmes embrace a broad range of artforms including music, theatre, dance and comedy in addition to programmes of contemporary visual art and bespoke education programmes for young people and adults. He has a contemporary interpretation of cultural event management, marketing and branding, and more recently has been developing strategies that place a particular emphasis on the potential of digital to achieve actual audience engagement with live performance and other aspects of contemporary culture.

Appointed 18/09/2019

After graduation from DIT in 1996 Padraig Cunningham co-founded Stoney Batter Studio and subsequently was involved in numerous shows including an emerging artist exhibition at the Ashford Gallery, RHA, and solo shows at the Cross Gallery, Dublin. In 2005 he moved to Boyle, Co. Roscommon and was Artist in Residence for a number of years in The Dock Art Centre, Co Leitrim, which culminated in a group exhibition, ‘Convergence’. In 2009 Padraig was awarded Trade residency, an international residency working with the artist Darren Almond, funded by Leitrim and Roscommon arts offices. This programme concluded with the Trade conference and an exhibition titled ‘Sequence’. In 2011 Padraig was invited to participate in an international project and residency in Bodh Gaya, India. The work was exhibited in Patina, India, and in Galway at Tulca 2011. In 2015 he completed SPARK residency; a collaboration with a technology enterprise center, the subsequent work Emergent Properties was exhibited as a conclusion to the project. In 2017 and 2018, along with artist Karl Burke I was commissioned by Roscommon Art Center curator Linda Shevlin to make collaborative work with a Brothers of Charity group in Roscommon. He also worked with artist Anna Macleod on the Park Project; Portrait of a Lake and in 2018 collaborated with artist Mark Garry that was purchased by IMMA as a recent acquisition. In 2019 he completed a MA Art in the Contemporary World, NCAD with the thesis project exhibited at the Goethe-Institut Dublin.

Padraig currently lives in Boyle, County Roscommon, and runs his own graphic design business along with his art practice.

www.padraigcunningham.com

www.puredesigns.ie

Appointed 24/02/2021

Crόna Gallagher is a poet/printmaker based in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in national and international journals and anthologies such as Crannόg, Magma, Popshot, Prairie Schooner, The Moth, The Dublin Quarterly, Poetry Bus, Revival and The Chattahoochee Review amongst others. Her fiction piece, ’Ballypuca’, a story about the ghost estates of Ireland post Celtic Tiger, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012 by its publisher Drunken Boat magazine. Other fiction was short listed for the Raymond Carver prize in 2011, and poetry was shortlisted for the iYeats International Poetry Award 2013, and for the Montreal International Poetry Competition 2013, which included her poem in their World Anthology 2014. Her poetry collection is ‘Doves of the Forest Night’ (Lapwing P).

Print and illustration has been featured in Poetry Bus, Sundog Lit, Prudence and Confetti magazines. Her artwork has been exhibited at Galleria De Loggia, Assisi; Treasna IV at The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon; ‘Against The Grain’ at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton in 2014. Gallagher was awarded a literary Bursary and a Travel and Training award by the Arts Council of Ireland in 2012. She has completed Literary/Print residencies at Tyrone Guthrie and Ginsetrelle, Italy and has also been awarded residencies at Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry for September 2014 and at Heinrich Bӧll cottage on Achill Island for 2015. Gallagher’s training took place at Grennan Mill in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny; N.C.A.D in Dublin; Atelier Benoit Prick in Neerharen Belgium; and Atelier Johann Bickendorf, Jülich Germany.

Appointed 24/02/2021

Laura McMorrow is a visual artist from Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim. She holds a Masters in Fine art from the University of Ulster in Belfast (2012) and she graduated with a degree in painting from Limerick School of Art and Design (2008). Her practice incorporates video installation, sculpture, collage, and painting. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Leitrim Sculpture Centre and a screening in LUX, London.

Appointed 21/06/2023

Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, Seán O’Reilly studied Fine Art at Jacob Kramer College of Art and Design, going on to complete a BA and Masters in Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art, University of Wales in 1989. Continuing to live in Cardiff O’Reilly co-founded the S.A.A.C studio complex in the Centre of the City from 1985 – 1999. He went on to established the Artists Project Ltd, Wales in 1992 organising and curating international exchange with east European partners including TRANS-FORMS, Muzeum Artystow, Lodz, Poland, 1996; and BORDERS, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia and the National Museums of Wales, Cardiff, 1997. Founding Member of Site-ations International in 1994 O’Reilly organized international site-specific projects with partners from across Europe and the USA including Site-ations, Cardiff 1994; Artfront/Waterfront. Site-ations Int. New York, 2002; and Sense in Place involving 60 artists working across diverse environments in Ireland, Wales, Iceland, Poland, Latvia and Spain in 2005. Selected international exhibitions include Elegeia, (sound installation), Grohmann Palace, Lodz, Poland, 1992; Elegeia II, at Construction in Process IV, UnionText Factory, Lodz, Poland, 1993; The River Inside, Wschodnia Gallery, Lodz, Poland, 1994; FIELD, at Co-existence, Mitzpah Ramon, Negev Desert, Israel, 1995; Book of Change, at Aggregatszustand, Paul Linker Factory, Berlin, Germany, 1997. Wind Form, at Cambio Constante, Zaragoza, Spain 2000; Silent Spring (sound installation) Old Iron Foundry, Avesta, Sweden, 2000; Memory Field, Plot 1/9 – at Fresh Kills Landfill Site and Snug Harbor Cultural Centre, Staten Island, New York, October 2001. In 2005 O’Reilly become the Artistic Director and CEO of Leitrim Sculpture Centre renovating and redesigning its three buildings from 2007 – 2009 before organizing over 50 residencies for Irish and international artists to the present day. O’Reilly was awarded a PhD from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2015.

Richard joined the team in 2008 and is responsible for administration, book-keeping and day-to-day running of the Centre. He also works on building maintenance and technical assistance to artists. He has been a charity administrator since 1989 and before joining LSC was Co-Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership.

Micheal joined as a member of staff in 2020, but had been involved with the Centre for many years before that. He works on building maintenance, is the main technician for gallery installations, as well as managing all the technical workshops around the Centre. He has a background in electrical work and building maintenance.

Sonya looks after our residential house called McKenna’s and is the cleaner for the other two buildings. She has a degree in Fine Art and supports our creative programme.

Crόna Gallagher is a poet/printmaker based in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in national and international journals and anthologies such as Crannόg, Magma, Popshot, Prairie Schooner, The Moth, The Dublin Quarterly, Poetry Bus, Revival and The Chattahoochee Review amongst others. Her fiction piece, ’Ballypuca’, a story about the ghost estates of Ireland post Celtic Tiger, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012 by its publisher Drunken Boat magazine. Other fiction was short listed for the Raymond Carver prize in 2011, and poetry was shortlisted for the iYeats International Poetry Award 2013, and for the Montreal International Poetry Competition 2013, which included her poem in their World Anthology 2014. Her poetry collection is ‘Doves of the Forest Night’ (Lapwing P).

Print and illustration has been featured in Poetry Bus, Sundog Lit, Prudence and Confetti magazines. Her artwork has been exhibited at Galleria De Loggia, Assisi; Treasna IV at The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon; ‘Against The Grain’ at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton in 2014. Gallagher was awarded a literary Bursary and a Travel and Training award by the Arts Council of Ireland in 2012. She has completed Literary/Print residencies at Tyrone Guthrie and Ginsetrelle, Italy and has also been awarded residencies at Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry for September 2014 and at Heinrich Bӧll cottage on Achill Island for 2015. Gallagher’s training took place at Grennan Mill in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny; N.C.A.D in Dublin; Atelier Benoit Prick in Neerharen Belgium; and Atelier Johann Bickendorf, Jülich Germany.

Byrne studied sculpture and design at NCAD obtaining his degree in 1968. After a period of upskilling as a master finisher in foundry work in London he returned to set up a Sculpture and Plastics department in Dunlaoghaire Arts School and taught sculpture part-time in the National College of Art and Design 1972-78. After taking a general course in philosophy, psychology and classics at Trinity he moved to the States in 1980 where he built a studio workshop in New York, manufactured fibre-glass lifeboats for the US Navy and worked on the famous Brooklyn Model Works. By the time he moved to San Francisco in 1991 he had already become a master cabinetmaker mixing his trade in carpentry and his studio practice in painting. In 2002 Byrne obtained dual Irish and US citizenship and joined the US Peace Corps and on June 8 2008 left Philadelphia to build a Visual Arts Studio and started a sculpture Dept in a Senior secondary School near the Togo border, Ghana. He returned to Ireland in 2017. Notable exhibitions and awards include: Irish Exhibition of Living Art, 1973-77; Dublin Arts Festival Sculpture 1974-77; Founder and chair of OASIS Open Air Show of Irish Sculpture in conjunction with Arts Council 1974. One person shows in venues such as Mugi studio Manhattan 1986; SOHO Artists, Mercer St. 1987; Belcher Studios Gallery, San Francisco 1996; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Zen Centre 2002; New Leaf Outdoor Sculpture Gallery, Berkeley 1998. Awards include IRELAND 66 Design Award (silver), 1966; Alice Berger Hammerschlag Trust Sculpture Award 1974; OIREACHTEAS Gold Medal, 1975.

Andy Roche is an emerging artist born in Scotland in 1965 and based in Co. Leitrim since 1993. He graduated from I.T. Sligo in 2012 and has been involved with the Leitrim Sculpture Centre and the Fablab in Manorhamilton in developing his practice. Past shows include Coordinates solo show, the Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen, 2016; As of Now graduate show, the Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, 2012; and Edge of Urge group show, the Mall, Sligo, 2010. Roche has a studio base at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre and was awarded an exhibition residency in 2019 to produce his show called EXPERIMENTS IN SACR3D GEOMETRY.

Christine Mackey completed a Fulbright Creative Research Scholarship Award in 2018 pursuing independent research at institutions across the States including Art & Ecology Department, University of New Mexico; Botanic GardensSteere Herbarium, New York; Native Seed Savers, Arizona; WormFarm Institute and GUMZ Peppermint Farm, Wisconsin.

Recent solo exhibitions include Home Grown Housing, The MERL, England; Silent Needles Speaking Flowers, The Observatory, England (2017); Provisional AC Institute New York, The Lung Kings House, Roscommon (2015), The Potting Shed Artlink Donegal, Balsam Bashing ArtLab, Rejmyre, Sweden, Labour on Draoicht Arts Centre, Dublin, Seed MatterLimerick City Gallery of Art, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny and Leitrim Sculpture Centre.Resident artist at various cultural institutions across Europe including Grizedal Arts, England; EUCIDA Digital art residency programme, Latvia (2019); ACA Allenheads, England (2016); Delfina Foundation, London; Agora Collective, Berlin, Utopiana Genève, Switzerland (2015); Rejmyre Art Lab, Sweden; Killruddery House and Gardens/Mermaid Arts Centre, Wicklow and Art & Sustainability (2014) Cambridge. In recent times, Mackey has produced several site-specific works throughout Ireland, most notably Safe Hold Wexford Public Arts Programme (2019-2020); Ocean Flowers WHAT Waterford Healing Art Trust (2019); Of Land and Soil, Flanagan’s Field Community Garden Bealtaine Age & Opportunity (2015), The Potting Shed ArtLink Fort Dunree (2014-ongoing), BacklandsProperty Registration Authority, Roscommon and A Year in the Field Fingal County Council Public Arts Office (2012).

She is also author, designer and publisher of several books and pamphlets that focus on historical and political vegetal matter and site-specific social narratives. Her work has received support from The Arts Council of Ireland Bursary and Travel Awards, Leitrim, Leitrim County Council Arts Award, Culture Ireland Exhibition Travel Awards, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Scholarship, University of Ulster, Belfast, Fulbright Creative Research Scholarship Award, USA and received the main open award at EV+A Limerick (2003). Her work is held in collection at The Arts Council of Ireland, The Drawing Collection - Limerick City Gallery of Art, Dublin County Council and Leitrim County Council.

http://www.christinemackey.info/

Anna Macleod is a visual artist and independent researcher based in Leitrim, Ireland. Her work utilises various methods and processes to mediate complex ideas associated with contemporary, historical and cultural readings of place, the legacies of colonialism and differing cultural policies and understandings of land use. Her work employs quasi-scientific methods, interdisciplinary collaboration and research and socially engaged activism to critique contemporary urban and rural scapes and to build metaphoric spaces for re-imagining the future. Macleod has participated in numerous artist residencies and exhibited widely nationally and Internationally. Her exhibition Water Conversations: A survey of Works 2007-2015 is currently running in The Dock, Carrick on Shannon until 12th September 2015 and her work is included in a group show, ‘ET SI ON S’ETAIT TROMP” at the Centre Cultural Irelandais in Paris in September. For more information, see www.annamacleod.com

Mary Theresa Keown was born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in 1974. She has just completed a PhD at the University of Ulster where she graduated with a B.A in 1997 and later worked as a part-time lecturer. She has been exhibiting consistently internationally and nationally for the past twenty years. In 2007 she had her second solo show in Tokyo, Japan and exhibits regularly in the Mullan Gallery, Belfast. She has won many awards including the Ireland Fund of Great Britain Artist of the Year Award in 2001 and her work is housed in many public and private collections. Mary has been awarded a Residency Exhibition for December 2021 at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre.

Joel Smith has worked in the community sector for over fifteen years with a focus on Men's Health. He is also a writer and photographer. His book Lost at Sea, a literacy book for prisoners has been published by SPCK. Joel has written a number of short plays performed by the North Leitrim Men's Group. He acted in and wrote the script for the North Leitrim Men's Group film "How the Púca got his tail back". Joel has worked on many cross border projects including Peace projects and INTERREG.