Jackie McKenna

McKenna’s practice ranges from public commissions to site-specific engagement often involving other art forms and practitioners such as writers, actors, musicians, film makers and architects. As a community activist she focuses on inter-human relations within sites of cultural diversity exploring memory and identity in tracing the many aspects of everyday life that both unite and make us different.

McKenna has produced several large outdoor public works throughout Ireland and abroad as well as gallery exhibitions. She was involved in organizing sculpture symposia, sculpture trails and parks and is a co-founder of the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim. McKenna has worked with communities in Prisons; Carers Groups; Tidy Towns Groups; Local Art Centres and Schools and has taught on Youth Reach programmes in Dublin, CE Schemes, in secondary schools and third level art colleges. McKenna currently teaches professional development workshops to artists at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre.

More recently fostering active community involvement McKenna’s practice draws on the dynamic relationship between the artist, the group and the artwork through a range of collaborative processes inspired by the traditions of artisan disciplines such as metal workers, stone masons, glass makers and ceramics.