County Wexford Arts Office

29/10/2026

Open Call for Artists Panel 2027-2029
Lead Artists & Assistant Artists for the Arts Ability Programme!

Deadline: Thursday 19 November 2026 at 4pm

For the full Brief and How to Apply please visit: https://artsability.ie/open-call/

Wexford County Council (WCC) Arts Office, in partnership with the HSE, invites applications from professional artists residing in County Wexford working in visual arts, creative writing, dance, and drama to join the Arts Ability Artists Panel for the 2027 – 2029 programme. This panel will have two strands including Lead artists and Assistant Artists.

Arts Ability is a person-centred, participation-focused arts programme, running since 2003, that provides access to high-quality art experiences for people who experience long-term mental health difficulties and/or intellectual, physical or sensory disabilities.

Delivered by Wexford County Council Arts Office in partnership with the HSE, the programme is built on meaningful engagement between participant centre users and a team of professional artists, working together across visual arts, creative writing, dance and drama.

Lead and Assistant Artists on the panel will be matched with participating HSE centres across County Wexford, each building a sustained three-year creative relationship with an organisation and its participants. The programme will culminate in a major group exhibition at County Hall in 2029, celebrating participants’ artistic achievements.

29/10/2026

Booking is now open for the National Arts in Education Portal Day taking place on Saturday 7 November 2026 at TU Dublin.

They invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education on the island of Ireland to join them for this free event.

The event will open with a panel discussion chaired by Phil Kingston, Arts in Education Portal board member and Community and Education Manager at the Abbey Theatre, with panellists Jo Mangan, Director of The Performance Corporation; Nathan Geszczak, a young person with a strong passion for the arts; Kate O’Shea, a multidisciplinary socially engaged artist; and Suzanne Little, Professor in the School of Computing at Dublin City University.

Some highlights from the programme include a talk from Playspaces: a collaboration between artist Chris Finnegan, Cork Midsummer Festival and three Múin Afterschool centres in Cork City; a creative workshop with artist Susan Leen exploring rain as a creative lens for engaging with climate change in education; and a presentation: See Hear Play: Technology, AI & Inclusive Creativity with teacher Fidelma Morris and assistive technology expert Karl O’Keeffe.

Find out more and book tickets here: https://artsineducation.ie/en/2026/10/15/programme-announced-for-2026-national-arts-in-education-portal-day/

Arts in Education Portal

27/10/2026

Richard Malone solo Exhibition Closing Event of 'Chorus'
Talk “One Life – One Health”

Karla Sánchez Zepeda in conversation with Richard Malone
with walk through of the exhibition.
Friday, 20th November, 5pm
Refreshments served.
Wexford County Council, Carricklawn Wexford, Y35 WY93

This is a free event, to register please email [email protected]

About the Event
Cultural producer and regenerative farmer Karla Sánchez Zepeda, and visual artist and fashion designer Richard Malone, have engaged over the years in various in-depth conversations about sustainability and the environment. Both have personal and professional experience of urban and rural environments, which has shaped their perspectives and practices over time.

As part of the opening events for the One Health Festival, they will meet again, this time in public, to continue their conversation about how we might understand wellbeing and explore more balanced relationships between the health of humans, animals and ecosystems.

The conversation will take place alongside Richard Malone’s exhibition Chorus at Wexford County Council, as part of the One Health Festival, led by UCD and partners to mark Ireland’s Presidency of the EU.

BIOS
Richard Malone is a visual artist and fashion designer whose multidisciplinary practice explores material, labour, identity and our relationship with the environment. In 2023, Malone was commissioned by the Royal Academy, London, for the Central Hall commission filiocht faoi bhrón, as an dorchadas (poem in the dark about sadness), and by the Hayward Gallery for Concurrence, a live performance commissioned for Dear Earth: Art and Hope in the Time of Crisis. In 2022, Malone won the Golden Fleece Award for Visual Art and has received Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary and Project Awards.

Karla Sánchez Zepeda is a curator, regenerative agriculture farmer and cultural producer. Originally from Mexico City, she has been based in rural Ireland for over 20 years. She is the founder and director of Blackbird Cultúr-Lab, an experimental cultural laboratory that creates spaces where holistic thinking, agriculture and the arts can meet.

21/10/2026

Save the Date!

Saturday November 28th at 6pm in St Michael's Theatre, New Ross.

Its that excellent time of year again where we get to experience a great evening of sort films and animations created by the incredible participants of Wexford Youth Film!

Proudly funded by Wexford Arts Office

All are welcome!

SAVE THE DATE: November 28th at St. Michael's Theatre New Ross All are welcome 😃❤️🎥

21/10/2026

Very special performance as part of Scéalta Samhna in the Castle Ballroom at Johnstown Castle at 18.30 - 19.15 this Sunday the 25 October.

This is a performance of dance, music and storytelling directed by Vivian Brodie Hayes featuring
Joe Brennan, Blanca Altable, Lucia Kickham and Kelly Keesing.

For All ages, €5

Booking: https://bookings.johnstowncastle.ie/Event/JOH00015

Presented in partnership with Spring Moves Dance Festival and the Stone Sessions

Funded by Creative Ireland Wexford County Council, Culture Ireland and the EU Presidency Culture Programme 2026, with support from LuailDance, Ireland's National Dance Company.



Culture Ireland

19/10/2026

Scéalta Samhna provides an opportunity to open the minds of children and all ages to the art of storytelling, the traditions of Samhain and a world of magic. The festival will celebrate stories in different ways, animating them through storytelling, books, workshops, making, folklore, music and dance. The event will take place in the magical Johnstown Castle, in the beautiful Ballroom and Library. The festival aims to open children’s eyes to the world of their imagination and to find the treasures in listening and sharing.

This festival is intergenerational and all ages are welcome, their Sunday family storytelling event will also be made accessible by providing an ISL interpretor. Some events are free but alsp require booking.

Instagram
Bookings www.johnstowncastle.ie

15/10/2026

The Stone Sessions presents Dream!

Wexford Lavender Farm Heritage Cafe Sat 7th Nov, 19.00 - 21.00

Roisin El Cherif

Come and listen to Roisin’s dreamy sounds and during the evening create some mantras and wishes. Roisin is an Irish Palestinian singer, writer and music film director. Roisin’s ethereal sound draws on the other realms, legend and magic. Rewritten as mixture of Irish, English and Arabic, Roisin honours the connection between her dual cultures. Roisin has toured Ireland extensively reclaiming her multigenerational heritage, and intrigue in mysticism and magic. Roisin appeared on Nialler9’s podcast speaking about embracing her Arabic roots, connecting it to Irish traditional music; drawing parallels with Irish mythology, folklore and keening.

Deirdre Southey - Berba's Reverie

Witness a beautiful film of a luminous meditation dedicated to Berba, goddess of the River Barrow. This work emerges from Deirdre’s eco-spiritual practice, where sound recordings gathered along the river in the height of summer are transformed through water, local honey, and gold into light-infused movement.

Colm Kiely - Wood Turner, Dancing Moons

Colm will share his knowledge on the night about wood turning and how it has been such a rewarding craft for him over the years. Working just beside Wexford Lavender Farm, Colm will bring along some of his pieces for everyone to see, come and chat to him about them and his drum making workshops afterwards.

All events are free of charge but booking required.
Bookings: [email protected]

📍Wexford Lavender Farm, Gorey Y25 NW42
📆 Saturday 7th November, 19.00 - 21.00

Funded and supported by Wexford County Council in partnership with CreativeIrl

30/09/2026

Reminder! Deadline for Free community nights at the Opera House is this Friday 2nd October.

Free Community Dates at the National Opera House 2027 - Open Call!

Closing Date Friday 2nd October 2026

Wexford County Council is committed to the promotion of arts and culture in the community, as highlighted in the County Arts Plan, whose mission is to engage, enable and enrich our communities through quality access to the arts.

We are delighted to offer, in partnership with the National Opera House, a series of subsidised community dates in the National Opera House during 2027.

We invite expressions of interest from community groups for a subsidised community date

Closing date for applications: Friday 2nd October 2026

Email applications to: [email protected]

The subsidised Community Date covers:
• Facilities: Hire of theatre for the day including all in-house sound and lighting, box office (including 24-hour online service), dressing rooms, green room, bar(s), toilets.
• Staff: Duty Manager and FOH team, Technical Supervisor, Box Office staff, Stage Door Staff and Bar Staff.
• Utilities: Heat, Lighting, Cleaning.
• PR/Marketing: support in promoting your event.

The subsidised Community Date does not cover:
• Box Office Charges (3% Spektrix fee & 2% Admin fee + 23% VAT applies)
• Technical Staff required to operate your event

Eligibility Criteria
To apply you must be:
• A community group of interest, art/music groups or a school
• The community group must be based in Co. Wexford
• The event must be for community and/or fundraising purposes
• The group is not eligible to apply if they have already received a free
community date in 2025 or 2026.

For Full details on how to apply please visit: https://www.wexfordcoco.ie/arts-and-culture/grants-supports-and-opportunities/wexford-county-council-open-call-community-dates-national-opera-house-2027

28/09/2026

The Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council Cllr Lisa Mc Donald warmly invites you to Screen Wexford Film Showcase!

Venue: Wexford Arts Centre (Wexford Town, Y35 X5HF)
Date: Thursday 1 October
Time: 7 – 9 pm

Showcasing new short films made through the ‘New Voices’ Film Bursary, funded through Wexford County Council’s Arts Office, and other short films supported through Screen Wexford.

7pm: Drinks , canapes and opening speeches
8pm : Short Film Screenings

For further information contact: [email protected]
www.screenwexford.com