Lucy Hyland: Creative Facilitator
I am a visual textile artist and creative wellbeing facilitator dedicated to the intersection of creative making, reflective practice, and artist practitioner sustainability. My professional work is dual-focused: I maintain an active studio while also providing structured, restorative support and supervision for artists and staff working within Arts and Health and socially engaged environments. By interweaving tactile material processes with reflective insights, I foster resilience and awareness, ensuring the creative source remains a sustainable wellspring for both the individual and professional path.
Creative Facilitator & Supervision: Support for Artists
Holding Space: Restorative and creative wellbeing sessions for artists, Creative Health Network Essex, Creative Lives UK (2026)
Reflective Practice Studio: Intimate intensive creative reflective programme for artists, Helium (2026)
Artist’s Wellness Workshop ‘Threads of Belonging’ FibreShed Wool Symposium, 2026
Practice and Presence online: Creative wellbeing and reflective practice programme, Helium (2025–2026)
Articulating Boundaries in Care: Workshop dedicated to artists working in Arts and Health, Réalta (2025)
Mending HeArts Self-care Workshop: Creative reflection for artists, Saolta Arts, Galway (2025)
Sustaining our Practice: Exploring Ritual for Self-care, Cavan Arts and Health online and in person workshops (2025)
Mindful Doodling & Embodied Drawing: Workshops for Minding Creative Minds and Cork Textiles Network (2024)
Lead Artist Mentor: Creative Supervision for artists and staff in the Good Grief Project, a community-based bereavement support programme, Creative Ireland (2023)
Community based Arts & Health Creative Facilitation
Thriving Together: Community weaving project across West Cork islands, 49 North St & West Cork Creative Places (2025)
Creative Wellbeing for Carers: Specialised sessions for Carers Ireland National Carers Event (2025)
Weaving into Wellness: Community initiative for Artists, Creative Ireland Waterford and Share Island Initiative (2025)
Deep Mapping for Belonging: Biomapping Community Workshops, Bioweaving Lab South East, 2025
Recent Awards in Creative Facilitation
Wellbeing & Reflective Practice for Artists Pilot Programme, Creative Waterford (2026)
Climate Literacy and Creativity, REACH programme, Headway (2026)
HSE Creative Wellness Award, Headway (2026)
HSE Weaving into Wellbeing Award, Headway (2025)
Creative Communities Grant, Weaving Workshops for All, Cork City (2025) & ‘Who we are Now: Our Shared Story of Illness and Recovery through Weaving’ (2023)
Project Actualisation Award, Create Ireland, Artist in Community Scheme (2022)
Research and Development Award, Create Ireland, Create Artist in Community (2023)
International Touring and Exhibition Award, Cork County Council (2023)
Evaluation Work
Creative Wellbeing for Artists Evaluation: Practice and Presence Creative Wellbeing & Reflective Practice Programme, Helium (2025)
Wellbeing Survey for Artists: Wellbeing and Reflective Practice for Artists, Creative Waterford (2026)
Speaking Events
Where Creativity Meets Wellbeing: Invited Speaker, Cork Textiles Network (2025)
Sustaining Our Practice: National Arts & Health “Check Up Check In,” Réalta (2025)
Wellbeing and the Arts: Well Waterford Festival, Réalta and Creative Waterford (2024)
Artist’s Thrive Conference: Presenter, North Carolina (2023)
Arts Practice
My contemplative visual arts practice is rooted in coastal landscapes, shaped by the rituals of slow, repetitive making exploring concepts of connection and belonging. Working with natural, native, and upcycled fibres, I create woven forms that examine relationships between land and a sense of home. These works interweave our inner and outer landscapes, offering a tactile language for finding a “home within.” I am represented by the Boathouse Gallery, Kinsale and maintain a regular exhibition schedule.
Relevant Education
M.A. Art Therapy: 1st Class Honours, Crawford College of Art and Design (2021)
B.A. Hons Contemporary Applied Art: 1st Class Honours, Crawford College of Art and Design (2018)
Diploma in Nutritional Therapy, College of Natural Medicine, Dublin (2008)
M.A. in Town and Country Planning: UWE, Bristol, UK (1998)
University College Cork, Ireland B.A.in Geography and Psychology (1996)
Memberships
Sample Studios Cork, Visual Artists Ireland (VAI), Cork Textiles Network (CTN), Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists (IACAT), Sample Studios (Cork) and Pratt Institute Mindfulness Collaboratory.
Prior Experience
Prior to establishing my current art and facilitation practice in 2022, I spent over a decade as the founder and lead consultant of a nutrition and health practice. This work was preceded by a career in strategic social planning, social policy and community consultation, where I held various policy and leadership roles in local and national government and private practice across Ireland, the UK, Canada, and Australia.