Creative Sessions in Manchester - St Brigid's Arms

Creative Sessions

We're running free creative sessions in Manchester for Irish heritage women to explore identity, culture, memory and migration as part of the St Brigid's Arms project. This is open to any and all Irish heritage women. All levels of experience are welcome - no experiene is necessary.

Over 5 sessions (either daytime or evening) you will be guided by the facilitator on creatively expressing your identity in a relaxed and welcoming environment. Please only sign up if you can make 4-5 of the sessions as you will be building on your work from previous weeks.

See below for information about the artform and facilitators.

All materials will be provided, as well as refreshments. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on emeraldlensinfo@gmail.com.

Some of the artwork created in these sessions will be featured (with permission) in our exhibition at the Victoria Gallery & Museum in Liverpool in September 2026 - March 2027. We're not looking for expert art, but work that reflects the experience of Irish heritage women, whatever that may be!

With thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Session dates and times:

Day sessions - Fridays 10.30am-12.30pm. Textile map making with artist Becca Smith.

• 16th January
• 23rd January
• 30th January
• 6th February
• 13th February

Evening sessions - Mondays 7pm-9pm. Ceramic decoration with artist Cj O'Neill

• 23rd Feb
• 2nd March
• 9th March
• 16th March
• 23rd March

Meet the facilitators

Becca Smith is an artist-antiquarian, combining archaeology, geology, people's history, folklore and landscape with painting, printmaking, drawing and textiles. She is part of the collective Scientific Rambles currently exhibiting in Stockport Hatworks for ARC Creative Wellbeing centre, and she founded the 'Sew Your Place' project in 2024, combining social stitching with collaborative cartography, and running versions of this participatory experience at Leek Textile Week 2024 and Kew Gardens 2025. Becca is also the director of the New Macclesfield School of Art (founded 2022) and is muralist, teacher and community artist in her home town of Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Cj O'Neill - Belfast-born (1978) and raised as the youngest of 7 children to a Dublin-born mother and Omagh-born father, Cj lives in Manchester with her husband and 2 children and explores her Irish identity, family, transitions and storytelling through a Craft practice which focuses on working with existing ceramic objects. Cj is a senior lecturer of Craft at Manchester School of Art teaching across ceramics, glass, jewellery and object making at BA, MA and PhD level. Her focus in teaching is to support the individual or group she is working with to find their unique creative language in the right material, enabling them to communicate their message through making to make a positive contribution to the world.

St Brigid's Arms project

This is a new project capturing untold stories of Irish women in the UK starting January 2025 until February 2027.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund backs ambitious project using creative approach to capture UK-based Irish women’s stories

A groundbreaking new project has been launched by female-led organisation Emerald LENS CIC to document the experiences of women of Irish heritage in the UK. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and match funding from the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, the initiative will run until February 2027, combining creative workshops and exhibitions to preserve stories that might otherwise be lost.