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2025
A Magic Moving Living Thing 2025 is a return to this artist-led project by Mary Conroy which took place at Butler Gallery in 2022. This project is an eco-cultural training programme, designed to connect to communities in the North Kilkenny River Nore catchment. A series of workshops will engage participants in creative ways to reflect and connect with our human and more-than-human relationships with the river and the river catchment, through making and discussion.
A publication is planned for a launch in Autumn 2025 which will share the community voices that have engaged in this project, and the many ways that the river keepers of the River Nore connect with the river.
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EVENTS -
Finding the Flow with Mary Conroy and Grainne Murphy at Freshford Millenium Park
Saturday 12 July 2025
This workshop aims to encourage participants to deeply connect with the river and surrounds. The workshop will begin by encouraging participants to spend time listening to, and being present with, the river through a meditation led by Grainne Murphy. The second part of the workshop will ask participants to explore the river and her surrounds to find material and inspire drawing, encouraging reflection and connection to the magic of this moving and living environment.
Medieval Ceramic Tile Making at Castlecomer Library
Wednesday 20th August 2025
Join us for a Ceramic tile making workshop with artist Mary Conroy, using medieval techniques and motifs. The workshop looks back at a heritage of clay and ceramics in Kilkenny and Castlecomer.
Nore Freshwater Mussels Ceramic Workshop at Ballyragget Community Hall
Saturday 6th September 2025
Join artist Mary Conroy to make porcelain mussels sculptures using molds made from real freshwater mussel shells found in the river Nore. The workshop will be an opportunity to get creative and learn about the unique but now functionally extinct Margaritifera durrovensis (Nore Freshwater Pearl Mussel), biodiversity and habitats along the river, and talk about things we can do to help save this, and other, endangered species.
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About the Artist
Mary Conroy lives and works in Limerick and Kilkenny, Ireland. She is a cross-disciplinary artist who graduated with a BA in Ceramics (2004) and an MA in Social Practice and the Creative Environment (2011) from Limerick School of Art and Design. She works in the medium of clay, ceramics, and mixed media sculpture within social practice. Her work investigates humans’ situation within the more-than-human world through socially engaged practice including participation and intervention.
This project is funded by Kilkenny Leader Partnership
