Take Me to the River: Picnic in the Park – RIVER PAST_RIVER FUTURE
Location: Brú na Boinne National Park at Netterville
Date: Sunday 24 August
Time: 11am - 4pm
Price: Free, booking essential
Participants: Adults, families & children
Click here to find out more about Take Me to the River.
National Heritage Week’s theme ‘Exploring Our Foundations’, invites us “to learn about the building blocks of our heritage; not just the structures, but the landscapes and cultural activities that have shaped us.”
Expanding on this theme and on Water Heritage Day, Picnic in the Park presents a day of 'Take Me to the River' engagements, workshops and walks exploring the grounds of the future Brú na Bóinne National Park.
A day of celebration and hands-on exploration of this Boyne Valley site, we will walk the multi-layered landscape through forest and field, reed bed and rivers edge. Located in the Chapel Field, Picnic in the Park presents an opportunity to discuss the past, present and future of the site. Looking back through 5,000 years of exceptional cultural and historical significance, we will explore archaeological remains, architectural heritage and hear about the future of the new Brú na Bóinne National Park within the Boyne Valley.
The creative workshops will engage large scale drawing, data collection, weaving and sculpture, kick-sampling and guided walks journeying through the ecological narratives of the river landscape.
Cineál will guide qualitative surveying exercises of observation and listening. Attendees will contribute to a sectional drawing that narrates this rich ecosystem. This transect study will create an accessible record of the river’s environmental condition, specific to the site, contributing to the ‘Creative Catchment Map’ developed in the project in 2024, to record information, activities and scientific enquiry.
Engagement, workshops and walks throughout the day:
01. Geology_Valley_Meander with artist Anna McLeod + Geologist Robert Meehan
02. Hidden Worlds_Sound _Invertebrates with Cineál + Brú na Bóinne Ecologist + kick sampling
03. Edge_Wetland_Weaving with artist Breda Marron + Brú na Bóinne Ecologist
04. Heritage_Beneath_Beyond a collaborative walk-through time with Dr Livia Hurley + Archaeologist Dr Cliodhna Ní Lionáin
05. Mapping: River_Banks_Trees with Cineál will be on-going throughout the day,
Detailed information, requirements and booking details for these individual events will be sent to ticket holders before the event.
Accessibility: The location of this event is on uneven grass and semi-rough terrain. Some workshops on the day require walking distances around the site. Please contact Deirdre before booking so we can assist you with any mobility requirements. Deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
Structured Action: The picnic presents an opportunity for dialogue, exchange, and skill sharing, with artistic, scientific and ecological expertise, bringing together communities, families, organisations, cultural institutions, academics and enthusiasts, to build awareness about the value of heritage, cultural and ecological, and support its conservation.
Facilitators:
Dr Livia Hurley is a Design-Fellow at the School of Architecture, UCD, lecturing in History & Theory while supervising the Master of Architecture (MArch) programme. Nominated n 2016/17 and 2020/21 for a UCD Teaching & Learning Award for Teaching Excellence, she is also an invited studio critic to Schools of Architecture - CCAE, SAUL and TU Dublin (DIT). Working in the field of architectural conservation, she is Chair of the Irish Georgian Society Conservation Awards Jury; and a Trustee of the Revelstoke Trust, Lambay Island, Co. Dublin. Published widely on Irish architecture, her research interests are largely focussed on urban history and the industrial environment, completing a PhD on Spaces of Production at the School of Art History, UCD.
Anna Macleod is an independent visual artist, researcher and educator based in Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton. Her work mediates complex ideas associated with contemporary, historical and cultural understandings of land and water through a variety of visual art media. Exhibiting extensively in Ireland and Internationally since the 1990’s, recent awards include Reach Scotland Residency Award to Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (2023-24), the Moran Award for Outstanding Sculpture as an invited artist to 194th RHA Dublin exhibition (2024), International Artist Residency Award for Pasaj, Istanbul & Interface, Connemara, Ireland (2023), and Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2021-22). Recent exhibitions took place at STAC, Clonmel with Katherine Sankey (2024) & Áras Éanna Gallery, Inis Óirr Island (2025) and up-coming solo show at The Dock, Leitrim (2026).
Breda Marron is an artist, sculptor and educator inspired by the interconnection between humanity, spirituality, the body and the natural world. A practicing artist for almost 30 years, she works predominantly to commission, using materials such as willow, bronze and steel. Working with all ages, her community engagement practice includes festivals, museums, gallery and school settings.
Graduating from NCAD in Textiles in 1997, she is the recipient of the Taylor Art Award, Sculpture in Context Award, The People's Choice Award, St. Brigid's Garden and the Maritime Art Award, Drogheda.
Public sculptural commissions include ‘Éirímís – Together We Rise’, the Sculpture Dublin commissions funded by Dublin City Council in 2022, ‘Heart Space’ for Dundalk Town Rejuvenation and various Percent for Art commissions for schools and public buildings.
Robert Meehan is a Quaternary geologist specialising in mapping sediment landform assemblages at a variety of scales, from field scale to ice sheet scale. Graduating from UCD with a PhD. in Quaternary geology in 1998, having proposed new timing for drumlinsation in the north central portion of the country, he then worked for Teagasc, producing the first National subsoils (Quaternary sediment) map, between 1998 and 2006. Since then, he has worked as a self-employed consultant geologist since then, providing mapping expertise to semi-state geoscientific bodies and environmental and organisations, and associated advice on related environmental issues. His ideology is that of sustainable development in partnership with environmental interests and concerns. From his base in County Meath and with associates throughout Ireland, Robert Meehan undertakes projects throughout the Irish Countryside and has worked on environmental geological projects in every county.
Dr Clíodhna Ní Lionáin is a commercial archaeologist, with extensive field experience in Ireland and Iberia, and in Adjunct Research Fellow for UCD School of Archaeology. Since 2017, Dr Ní Lionáin has directed the excavation of the Dowth Hall Passage Tomb (ME020-098----) and subsequent post-excavation work, the latter being graciously funded by the National Monuments Service.
Cineál Research + Design is a collaborative architectural practice led by Phoebe Brady and Sarah Doheny since 2021. The studio explores the experiential qualities of the built environment through a practice of mapping and observation. Their design work and research explores the relationships of materials and ecology in the design and creation of spatial experiences. Cineál identifies as an environmentally sensitive practice where drawing, designing and building processes are rooted in place, connecting local landscape knowledge, ecology, geology, climate and weather.
Working with Solstice Arts Centre on Take Me to the River 2024, they are expanding their collaboration this year, facilitating experimental forms of mapping to understand the iterative ecology between communities and their environments within the project. Introducing sectional drawings for each site to narrate the ecosystem from the riverbed to the treetops, together with workshop participants they will create an accessible record of the river’s environmental condition, specific to a place and time.
They will be guiding qualitative surveying exercises through observation, drawing and listening within each public workshop which will contribute to the ‘Creative Catchment Map’, developed in 2024 to record information, activities, and scientific enquiry.
Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) works on behalf of Ireland’s 31 local authorities to protect and restore good water quality in our rivers, lakes, estuaries, ground and coastal water through catchment science and local community engagement. Funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, LAWPRO coordinates efforts to achieve good or high water quality in our rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters, and groundwater, as required by the European Union Water Framework Directive. Healthy rivers and catchments support a healthy environment, a robust economy, our health, and wellbeing.
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