South Tipperary Arts Centre

03/06/2026

Another gorgeous illustration from Róisín Hahessy! Pop along to our Cruinniú na nÓg at STAC Chapel to exploring Telling Stories with Pictures.

Róisín Is a Clonmel native who went off and travelled the world and illustrated loads of children’s books and we’re totally delighted that she letting us into her world this Saturday at STAC Chapel on Kickahm Plaza. Suitable for ages 3 - 12 this promises to be a very special day facilitated by Mags and Muireann with storytelling by Mary. Who know’s Róisín might even pop along!



.hahessy .tobin

02/06/2026

Artist Spotlight! Sheenagh Geoghegan,'Teacher Creature', 2025 - Oil and mixed media on canvas 76 x 76cm. On loan from Limerick City Gallery of Art Permanent Collection. We love having this beautiful painting here at STAC as part of STAC at 30.

Sheenagh Geoghegan completed her MFA at The Slade School of Art, London (2013) where she was awarded the Stanford Scholarship, The Orpen Award and The Charles Heath Hayward Award.
She has exhibited widely in Europe and America including Cornell University, New York, Alma Zevi in Venice, and the Leila Heller Gallery, New York. She has participated in the Colour and Poetry Symposium at The Slade School of Art, University College London in 2024, 2025 & 2026.
Recent solo exhibitions include Atelier Concorde in Lisbon in 2023 supported by Culture Ireland, Camera Cluj, Cluj Romania in 2024 and Limerick City Gallery in 2025. Recent awards include The Galway Arts Centre Bursary Award and The Tipperary Artist Award.

STAC at 30 runs at South Tipperary Arts Centre until 20 June 2026.

02/06/2026

Taking a moment to reflect on the brilliant panel discussions that were had on Saturday 30 May. The first panel featured Helena Tobin, Michelle Horrigan and Paul O'Neill on 'What's an Art Centre Anyway?" and offered a forward thinking perspective on curation and what an art centre can be.

The afternoon panel featured some of Tipperary's finest , featuring Aideen Barry, Sheenagh Geoghegan, Ursula Burke, Bridget O'Gortman and Austin McQuinn giving some insight into 'Making Art in a Rural Context'. There was some very relatable conversation about sheds and kitchen tables and the possibilities afforded to artists in this digital age.

STAC Talks #1 accompanies the current STAC at 30 exhibition running here at South Tipperary Arts Centre until June 20th featuring the artists from our second panel discussion, alongside work by John Burke, Patricia Hurl ad Alice Maher.

Keep an eye out on our socials for details of STAC Talks #2 in the Autumn accompanying our exhibition celebrating Coracle Press.

02/06/2026

We are so excited to have Roisin in the house this Saturday at STAC Chapel for Cruinniu na nÓg 2026.
June 6th - 12pm - 4pm at STAC Chapel, Kickham Plaza, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
Suitable for ages 3-12
Drop in, all welcome, admission FREE!

Roisin Hahessy is an award winning illustrator with over 50 books published. Born and raised in Clonmel, she has always shown a keen interest for drawing and as soon as she was old enough, she joined the STAG art group where she remained a member until she left Clonmel and moved to Dublin to study animation. From there she went on to join the graphics department in TV3 and it was in Dublin that she met her Brazilian husband, Filipe.
In 2015 they moved to Brazil where they stayed for 6 years, soaking up the sun, the coconuts and the torrential rain. A few years later they moved back to Europe and since then they have been living in the city of Porto in Portugal and Roisin visits Ireland a few times a year.
While living in Brazil, Roisin began working remotely as a children’s book illustrator. She has since worked on books with clients such as the O’Brien Press, Usborne and Futa Fata. More recently, she has been pitching ideas to publishers and hopes to have some of her own stories published in the not-so distant future.

02/06/2026

31/05/2026

Artist Spotlight! Austin McQuinn's 'Richard Bide-the-Bent' and 'Alice',- Lambda print on Dibond (dim. 91.5 x 60.8 cm) On loan from the Butler Gallery Collection. Delighted to have these works in the house as part of STAC at 30.

Austin McQuinn’s (b.1967, Co.Kerry) recent solo exhibition, Mountains, Fall On Us, at Limerick City Gallery of Art 2024 amalgamated new paintings with live art performance and sculpture in a series of ambitious installations across the four main galleries at LCGA and followed with a full-colour Publication. His practice is defined by these deeply researched bodies of work creating solo exhibitions; in Project, Dublin; in Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle: DCP, San Francisco: and more recently at The Source, Thurles and at STAC in Tipperary, where he lives and works. For STAC Chapel, he manifested a 24hr live art event curated by Helena Tobin. His doctoral expertise in live art practice and critique is expressed in his book, Becoming Audible, on sound, animality and performance, reissued in paperback this year by Penn State University Press.

29/05/2026

Artist Spotlight! John Burke's 'Musical Table' from 1996; painted steel (dim. 50 x 55 37cm). On loan from the collection of the Arts Council/ An Comhairle Ealaíone. Delighted to have this work in the house as part of STAC at 30.

Born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, in 1946 (d.2006), John Burke studied at the Crawford School of Art in Cork, and in London with Brian Kneal.

His work featured in all the major Irish group exhibitions, as well as international shows like Artists 77, New York (1977); 18 European Sculptors, Munich (1978); Sculpture Européenne, Brussels (1979); A Sense of Ireland, London (1980); and C.A.N., Cork (1985), where he won the sculptor prize. He has held solo shows at Trinity College, Dublin; the Ulster Museum, Belfast; the David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; and an open-air show in Cork city. He won the Cork Arts Society Award (1967), a Macaulay Fellowship (1970), and the Alice Hammerschlag Travel Award (1979).

He was instrumental in defining sculptural practice in Ireland during the 1970s. He juxtaposed simple geometric shapes to form abstract compositions, and employed colour to soften and disguise unwanted elements of the metal. Burke taught at the Crawford School of Art and counted among his pupils Eilis O’Connell, Vivienne Roche, Maud Cotter and Jim Buckley. He was a member of Aosdána.

28/05/2026

Oooh look, another throwback Thursday - this time last year when we hosted the WAAG symposium which looked at the legacy of WAAG on Saturday 10th May 2-25 at STAC Chapel. This one-day symposium focused on themes around the legacy of WAAG, the power of collective agency and the importance of archives. Speakers included Sarah Kelleher, Pauline Cummins, Louise Walsh, Catherine Marshall, Eve Olney, Deirdre O'Mahony, Niamh Moriarty and Siobhan Geoghegan.

This year on Saturday 30 of May we'll host the first of our STAC Talks at STAC Chapel - 'What is an Arts Centre Anyway?' Link in bio for further info.


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