Arts in Education Portal Regional Day
Morning Session
Presentation
Mindful Transitions: Learning Through Creativity
Artists Sally-Ann Duffy & Caroline Clarke from Bailieborough Creative Hub share a collaborative project between primary and secondary students addressing thoughts and anxieties around moving from primary to secondary school and beyond.
By using creativity as an outlet, Sally-Ann & Caroline gave students a way to ‘draw out’ their stress and turn it into something calm. The project was a low-pressure way for 5th and 6th-class children to interact with TY students, ask the ‘scary’ questions about secondary school and realise they aren’t alone in feeling nervous.
This project can be used as a toolkit for life, not just an art class. It uses art to build a community before the first day of school even starts.
Sally-Ann Duffy’s practice is rooted in community art projects and bringing creative experiences to schools and the public through events and workshops. Her personal artwork explores the possibilities of mixed media and textiles including natural materials, recycled and found objects.
She co-founded the Bailieborough Creative Hub in 2019 after identifying a need locally for a space where artists and creatives could come together to share ideas, to support artists to bring their art to a public arena and to help combat rural isolation often felt by artists. Along with fellow Bailieborough Creative Hub Creative Coordinator, Caroline Clarke, she has managed more than 25 community arts projects including some funded by Creative Ireland, Cavan Arts and the Arts Council. She has worked with Cavan County Museum for several years on various projects.
Caroline Clarke is a community-focused artist whose work is deeply rooted in collaborative art projects and the creation of accessible creative experiences through events and workshops in schools and youth settings. As a Creative Coordinator at Bailieborough Creative Hub Caroline helps to cultivate a collaborative environment for artists while strengthening connections between creative practice and the wider community. Through her role at the Hub, she has developed and delivered a broad and diverse range of community arts initiatives.
Her personal artistic practice spans painting, mixed media, and ceramics. Her work invites viewers into visual narratives that blur the boundaries between abstraction and representation, presence and memory. Her work explores the space between reality and memory, inviting viewers to find their own stories within it. Caroline’s ongoing work focuses on creating projects that encourage inclusion, connection, and community development.
Presentation & Workshop
Waves And Wonders: A TAP+ Creative Project
Teacher Oonagh Gilsenan & Artist Rebecca Maguire will share their learnings from a TAP+ residency at Navan Educate Together N.S. that transformed a Senior Infants classroom into an ocean of imagination. They will share their collaborative journey: from sensory exploration at Killiney Beach to the creation of a large-scale collaborative mural.
This interactive presentation will feature three workshop stops where attendees engage in character design, tactile tracing, and strategic play. The session demonstrates how natural, foraged materials can bridge the gap between nature and early years literacy, concluding with the recorded voices and creative reflections of the children themselves.
Oonagh Gilsenan is a primary school teacher at Navan Educate Together N.S., with experience across all levels since 2001 in Ireland and internationally.She has been teaching in Navan since 2009 and she currently teaches a class of 25 Senior Infants. Oonagh has a strong passion for arts in education, particularly visual arts, traditional music and choral singing.
Through the TAP+ programme and her partnership with pebble artist Rebecca Maguire, her pupils were inspired to use natural materials to create imaginative, meaningful work, fostering creativity, curiosity and joy. The process was simply magical for all involved.
Rebecca Maguire is a maker, artist, and TAP+ Artist, and the founder of Púróga Pebble Art. Based in Meath, she specialises in pebble and mixed media art, using materials foraged from nature and reimagining them into unique pieces of art. Through her Waves and Wonders residency at Navan Educate Together, Rebecca worked with Senior Infants to turn plain grey stones into characters and strategic games. Her work is centred on the “pure state of play,” proving that with a bit of imagination, a simple pebble can be transformed into something extraordinary.