STAC are delighted to be running a series of five artists residencies at STAC Chapel — our site for experimentation and the development of new work — over four months in 2026.

These residencies aim to facilitate collaboration between artists who wish to work together, but who have otherwise not had the time and/or space to do so. Each pair of artists will receive a stipend of €1200 and will deliver an element of public engagement at the end of their residency period. Keep an eye on our socials for further details regarding upcoming public events.

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MEET THE ARTISTS:

Jack Ó Meara & Jack Pierce
Monday 15th – Friday 19th June

Jack Ó Meara is a visual artist based between Tipperary and Dublin. Having graduated from NCAD in 2023 with a First Class Honours in Fine Art Textiles, Ó Meara’s practice is process-driven with a focus on materiality. Using techniques such as lacemaking, ceramics and drawing, Ó Meara explores themes relating to the passage of time, colonialism and the duality of modern life. Ó Meara’s practice is currently supported by Tipperary County Council, and has previously been supported by the Michelangelo Foundation (2024/2025) and the Arts Council of Ireland (2023). 

Jack Pierce is a Dublin-based multi-disciplinary artist and educator, specialising in textile art. Pierce's practice is process-driven, blending sculpture, painting, and costume. Influenced by queer ecology, monstrosity, and identity, he uses experimental material processes to reimagine the world around him. Sustainability plays a central role in his work; he engages with alternative and found fibres, and draws on antiquated crafts to question material legacy, Anthropocene horror, and nature’s fragmentation. Pierce's current research explores ‘unruly heritage’ and queer ecology. He is interested in the haunting/afterlife of discarded materials and how they intersect with queer philosophy. ‍

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Chelsea Canavan & Aideen Barry
Monday 22nd – Friday 26th June

Chelsea Canavan is an interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, and educator whose work explores place and systems of social ecology through collaborative practices. With a background in socially engaged art and design, her projects often take the form of participatory workshops, installations, and research-led engagements. Based in Ireland, she is committed to co-creating spaces that support shared creative experiences, storytelling, and transformation.

Aideen Barry is a conceptual artist based in Ireland with an international multifaceted practice spanning filmmaking, performance, experimental lens-based media, drawing, and sculpture. Her work employs visual trickery to create a heightened suspension of reality, with a central theme of exploring sinister systems. Her works serve as a Brechtian hammer, while also democratising access to visual culture for various audiences and stakeholders, inviting them to co-author the creative process. Barry is a member of Aosdána and the Royal Hibernian Academy, and her work is held in private collections and public museum collections worldwide. ‍

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Marie Brett & Joe Brennan

Monday 13th – Friday 17th July

Marie Brett is a visual artist creating audio-visual work and immersive, multi-media installation events that consider social, psychological, allegorical and folk medicine methods of processing ill-health, trauma, conflict and control. The artist has a socially engaged practice, including research, active dialogue, reciprocal exchange and collaboration. Her contextualisation and dissemination includes creating digital archives, bespoke websites, participatory activities, publications and audience gifts. Brett also works as an artist’s mentor, arts consultant, producer, guest lecturer and trainer for numerous organisations nationally. She has received a number of awards and public art commissions. Her artwork is held in public art collections, and her writing about practice has been published in Ireland, the UK and Finland. ‍

Joe Brennan is a Wexford storyteller and children’s playwright/theatre maker who has been weaving tales of magic, wisdom and wonder for the past 25 years. He believes stories hold a mirror to us, offering opportunities for insight into our own worlds. Sharing his collection of traditional, and original stories, with audiences of all ages across classrooms, libraries, arts venues and hospitals, he has featured in countless storytelling and arts festivals including Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival and YARN Storytelling Festival. He was the Artist in Residence with Waterford Healing Arts (2021), and for the past six years he has been the Creative Writing Facilitator with the Arts Ability Programme, at Le Cheile, Enniscorthy. Joe is the author of Donegal Folk Tales, was the curator of the Children’s programme for Kilkenny Arts Festival and inaugurated the ‘Three Sides of the Same Sea’ International Storytelling Festival, Rametlon, Co. Donegal. He is a founding member of Storytellers of Ireland. ‍

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Paul Sheehan & Murilo Ortunho         ‍

Monday 31st Aug – Friday 4th

Paul Sheehan recently produced his original multicultural comedy, ‘Sacred Old Cow’, at Smock Alley Theatre Dublin, as part of the Scene & Heard Festival. He was awarded Best Male Lead Performance at the Green Room Awards 2023, making his Off-Broadway debut in the lead role of Andrew in ‘My Big Gay Italian Midlife Crisis’. Onscreen, Paul is currently filming the role of Robbie in ‘Delete The Dead’, in addition to recently shooting with Toby Meakins in London on ‘The Kitchen’.

Murilo Ortunho is a performer, producer, and researcher with over ten years of experience in the arts and culture field. Trained in dance and performance across Brazil, Argentina, and Ireland, his mentors include Sarah Jane Scaife (Company SJ), Luiz Bongiovanni (Forsythe Dance Company), and Sandro Borelli (Balé da Cidade de São Paulo). He holds an MPhil in Theatre & Performance from Trinity College Dublin and a BA in Literature & Translation Studies from Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. His practice explores Practice as Research (PaR), intersemiotic translation, and eco-performance through movement-based approaches to the body, nature, and technology.  ‍

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Roibí Roe & Rachel Roberts

Monday 7th – Friday 11th Sep

Roibí O Rua is a visual artist and self-proclaimed popstar based in Waterford City. A graduate of Limerick School of Art and Design, she has exhibited work in the 39th EVA International, the 2021 RDS Visual Arts Awards and has completed a digital commission as part of Project Arts Centre’s SHORT CUTS programme in collaboration with RTÉ Culture in 2022. She was the Irish Artist-In-Residence for the Full Stack Feminism in Digital Humanities Project and most recently participated in Capacity Ireland's Artists Residency 2025 in Lisbon. With a background in queer club culture and the Irish working class, she creates work that explores trans identity as it relates to and evolves with Cyberspace. Her work and research manifests as music, 3D modelling, animation/illustration, and performance with an emphasis on digital and accessible methodologies.  ‍

Rachel Roberts is a Waterford based visual artist. Her practice is primarily lens based and explores memory, identity, and time through experimental analogue photographic processes. She works with moving image, 35mm film, Polaroid emulsion lifts, and cyanotype, using material experimentation to reflect the fragility and distortion of memory.  

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Our STAC residency programme 2026 is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Tipperary County Council.