Our Neuro-spectacular! programme this summer, for families with one or more neurodiverse children, will be led by artist and puppeteer Niamh Lawlor and artist Michelle Hall. This programme is part of Cruinniú na nÓg, the national day of free creativity for children and young people under 18.
Neuro-spectacular! is a creative workshop programme for families who have one or more children who are neurodiverse. This programme works with one family at a time, over two 45 minute sessions. A family can include parents/guardians/caregivers and children. Other family members who would like to take part, such as grandparents, are welcome. However, the primary focus is on the neurodivergent child/children of the family. We talk to each participating family in advance of these workshops about the nature of the neurodivergent child’s needs and their interests. Using this information, we tailor each 45 minute workshop to the child and family.
Our next iteration of Neuro-spectacular! is on Saturday 15 June and Saturday 6 July, and will be led by artist Michelle Hall and artist and puppeteer Niamh Lawlor.
Participation is free, and places are very limited.
Families are required to commit to both dates, and we ask that families book in before Monday 3 June. If you are interested in taking part and/or would like more information please contact Cleo Fagan on [email protected]
This programme has been developed in consultation with actor and writer Jody O’Neill, who has experience creating work for neurodiverse audiences.
-
Biographies
Michelle Hall is a neurodivergent artist and educator. Over the past 16 years Hall has facilitated workshops with a wide range of participants of varying ages and abilities. Hall has also trained in Visual Thinking Strategies with Dublin City Arts Office, an exploratory tool for looking at and interpreting art with all types of audiences. In her visual arts practice, Hall has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad. Her practice has been generously supported by Fingal Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland. She works across multiple disciplines using symbolic materials and gestures to create narratives that investigate modes of healing, both real and imagined.
Niamh Lawlor is a multidisciplinary artist working most often through the medium of Puppet Theatre. Trading as Púca Puppets since 1997, she has extensive experience as a maker, performer, writer, director, designer and participative artist in contexts including theatres, hospitals, museums and schools, including special ones. Working through Irish and English, she has won several Arts Council Awards. Her most recent production, a Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Co Co and Culture Ireland commission, Small Wonders, is an interactive multi sensory show created with and for parents and babies. Thanks to a Healthy Ireland Award this piece was adapted to create Sensory Wonders for children with autism and Myriad Wonders for children with complex needs. Winner of the Fisín Award from Dingle International Film Festival 2014 and ’19 her Béirín Beag Buí films are available on the RTE player. Her next production, The Holding Bones, for an adult audience, opens at Samhain and celebrates her lost loved ones, interweaving memory, folklore, superstition, and enacting it through live drawing, puppetry and theatrical storytelling. In 2025 she plans an interactive multi generational piece on the theme of Joy which she is researching this year through an extensive workshop programme in collaboration with partners such as Hugh Lane Gallery, Mermaid and Riverbank Arts Centres and Sligo’s Cairde Festival. With Púca she has toured with puppets on water, stages and screens from Ballymun to Bangkok. arts.
Jody O’Neill is an autistic writer and actor for theatre and screen. Since her autism diagnosis, she also frequently works as a public speaker and consultant. She is a recipient of the 2022 Markievicz Award, is Theatre Artist-in-Residence at UCC and Cork Opera House, and was a finalist for the 2022 Virgin Media Discovers Award. Her play, What I (Don’t) Know About Autism, a co-production with The Abbey Theatre, received the award for Best Script at the WGI Zebbie Awards 2021. She is currently writing animations for a Cartoon Saloon series and is co-writing an animation feature funded by Screen Ireland.
