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Introducing Our Artists in Residence at Áras Éanna, Inis Oírr
Creative Places Tuam is delighted to announce the three artists selected for its 2026 residency programme at Áras Éanna Arts Centre on Inis Oírr this October.
Following an open call earlier this summer, three Tuam-based artists have been selected to take part in two residencies on the island, supported by Creative Places Tuam’s ongoing commitment to developing creative opportunities for artists in Tuam and its surrounding communities.
Sinead Hayes | Residency 1: 4-17 October
Sinead Hayes is a composer, violinist and conductor from Corofin, Tuam. Over the past decade she has conducted the music of living composers in Ireland and internationally as conductor of Belfast’s Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble. She is also a performer with the newly formed Wild Atlantic Strings and writes about music and creativity on her Substack, The Creative Conductor.
During her residency on Inis Oírr, Sinead will compose a series of pieces for string quartet inspired by John Millington Synge’s play Riders to the Sea, drawing on the deep connections between speech, words and music. She will engage with the local island community through a workshop exploring these themes in the context of Synge’s work, with recordings of island voices forming part of the creative process.
This new work builds on her first string quartet, Stony Grey Soil, which was performed by Galway’s ConTempo Quartet at the Irish Composition Summer School 2026 and drew on the rhythms and ideas of Patrick Kavanagh’s poem of the same name.
You can follow Sinead’s work on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, or visit her website.
Patricia Conroy and Corina Hogan | Residency 2: 18-30 October
Patricia Conroy and Corina Hogan will undertake the second residency together, bringing their shared love of wool, fibre arts and landscape-led making to Inis Oírr.
Patricia has been working in felt art for many years and recently studied Art and Design at GRETB. Rooted in the forests and bogs of her home place, her practice takes raw fleece through to finished artwork, incorporating natural dyeing along the way. On the island, she plans to experiment with new areas of felt art she has long wanted to explore, including extracting natural colours from sea plants found along the Inis Oírr shoreline. Patricia also hopes to share the felting experience with any islanders who want to take part.
You can follow Patricia’s work on Instagram and Facebook.
Corina Hogan is a largely self-taught artist who works across a range of artforms, with landscape, people and animals as her primary influences. Drawn to the ruggedness of island life, the crashing waves and the particular sense of freedom and isolation that comes with living on an island, Corina hopes her work will capture something real about what life feels like on Inis Oírr. Like Patricia, she is eager to bring islanders into the creative process, hoping to get people making and experimenting with wool alongside her.
You can follow Corina’s work on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.
Together they have been practising and teaching their craft for over twelve years, with work shown at the RDS and Phoenix Park through Crafters of Ireland and Feltmakers Ireland.
Creative Places Tuam is supported by the Arts Council’s Creative Places programme, Galway County Council Arts Office and Galway Rural Development.