2025 Artist Mentoring Award Recipients Announced

Create is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2025 Artist Mentoring Award.

This award sits within a suite of offerings under the Artist in the Community (AIC) Scheme. Now in its fourth year, it aims to offer capacity building and arts practice development for collaborative socially engaged artists, and artists who are transitioning into this field.

For the five selected artists, the award offers an eight-month period of capacity building and arts practice development through dialogue with an experienced collaborative socially engaged artist mentor.

Artist and curator Dámhín McKeown will be mentored by Seamus Nolan to ensure sustainability of his practice through developing practical and production skills and supports, as well as increasing skills in responsible engagement with communities, particularly marginalised communities.

Theatre-maker Eftychia Spyridaki will be supported by mentorship by Grace Dyas, in developing her collaborative practice, making the leap from traditionally narrative-led projects to projects that focus on community, as well as expanding her knowledge of neurodivergent-friendly ways to collaboratively create.

Multidisciplinary artist Shauna Harris will be mentored by both Grace Dyas and Tobi Balogun, in sustaining long-term collaborative engagements with communities beyond short-term projects. Shauna and her mentors will further reflect on ways to move beyond workshopping models or participatory arts approaches and into true collaboration.

Emerging socially engaged artist Steph Saidha will be mentored by Ruairí Ó Donnabháin to build new professional networks and create opportunities for practice, allowing her to explore and strengthen identity as she transitions from academia and into a career as a socially engaged artist.

Visual artist and curator Ben Malcolmson will work with mentor Alan James Burns, developing strategies for community engagement, and deepening approaches to co-creation, particularly in regional contexts where historical sensitivities require nuanced facilitation.

All mentors and mentees will explore central elements of collaborative socially engaged practice, including collaborative methodologies, outreach, sustaining relationships with communities, evaluation, and more. Create’s Mentoring Award is funded through the Artist in the Community (AIC) Scheme, managed by Create on a devolved basis for the Arts Council.

The panel which determined this award was chaired by Aine Crowley Programme Manager Arts and Engagement, and consisted of Cathy Coughlan, multidisciplinary artist and consultant, Aisling Byrne, artist and theatre maker, Michelle Browne,  Socially Engaged Artist and Educator, and Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Research and Learning Manager, Create.  Tatiana Dos Santos, AIC Scheme Development Officer, observed and took minutes, and Trinity Lisk was an observer.