Artistic Director

Caroline Conway
Caroline Conway is a multi-media artist based in Birr, Co Offally and the Artistic Director of Longford Lights and Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival. Caroline is a visual arts maker with an interest in creating and showing work outside traditional gallery spaces, with a particular focus on light, projection mapping, optical devises and illuminated forms. More recently Caroline has developed a collaborative, multi-disciplinary practice to include moving image, sound and performance to produce a multi-layered, immersive experiences.
Invited Artists

Michelle Dufaur
Michelle Dufaur is a UK-based participatory artist working in willow and steel to create large architectural installations with light and paper. Her breadth of experience in community led projects gives her an exemplary level of depth to the participatory commissions she’s given. Her personal artistic growth runs parallel to a genuine desire to share the creative process and elevate those that take part. This is Michelle’s third visit to Longford Lights where she will work again with Longford’s ICA Federation. Ilia Sibiryakov works with Michelle to create the bespoke lighting required for the lanterns.

Paul Bokslag
Paul Bokslag is a Dutch artist and designer, based in Co. Kilkenny. He is a co-founder of KCAT Arts Centre and works as an Associate Artist with Helium Arts and Workhouse Union. Paul has completed large installations for Birr Arts Festival; Kells Typetrail; Luan Gallery, Athlone; the National Design & Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; VISUAL, Carlow and Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin.

Ulrike Liebetrau
Ulrike was born 1983 in Germany, studied OT and moved to Ireland in 2007. She received a scholarship for gifted people and graduated as a sensory integration practitioner in 2010. She has been an artist and maker since 2011 in Ireland creating for festivals, theatre, events and with the community.
Metamorphosis Artists

Eileen Casey—Writer
In Bog Treasure, poet and prose writer Eileen Casey collaborated with visual artist and poet Jeanne Cannizzo to produce a stunning collection. Bog Treasure showcases Casey and Cannizzo’s distinctive poems, exploring cross-cultural encounters, the complexities of the relationship of the past and the present, and the intersection of art and anthropology. In 2022, Eileen’s collection Bog Treasure formed the basis of a choral music composition by contemporary music composer Fiona Linnane. These poems are the beginning and inspiration for the Metamorphosis spectacle event.

Fiona Linnane—Music Composer
Fiona Linnane is a composer whose compositional practice centres around use of text and includes opera, art song and featuring spoken word. She is director of Limerick New Music Ensemble. Recent recorded work includes Would Be Poetess for violin and spoken word and Leatherwing for harpsichord featuring recordings of the elusive lesser horseshoe bat. Linnane is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland in 2025 having been awarded a Music Bursary for a project exploring Art Song mentored by American composer Ellen Mandel.

Ana Ortega—Dramaturg/Performer
Ana Ortega and Marcos Castro are Artistic Directors of Cal y Canto Teatro. Cal y Canto is a performance company that specialises in street theatre and puppetry. Their shows have toured more than 25 countries around the world, inventing amazing visual languages for the public.

Andy Spearpoint—Sound Design
Andy Spearpoint is a musician and sound artist based in North Tipperary. His socially engaged practice often involves sound collection, storytelling and improvisation and he writes and performs his own semi-improvised electroacoustic music.

Maria Matthews—Soprano
Maria is a soprano from County Longford, and a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Maria performs regularly with Irish National Opera as chorus member, most recently in their productions of Gounod’s Faust and Puccini’s La bohème. Maria took part in the 2021 Raise Our Voices and the 2023 Celebrating the Voice concert series, both curated by Irish Mezzo Soprano Tara Erraught. In 2021 she was the winner of the Birr Lyons Vocal Bursary in conjunction with the Trench Award, and in 2023 Maria was a Camerata Ireland Young Artist and a Voice Fellow at Opernfest Prague where she had the opportunity to sing with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in Smetana Hall.

Caoimhe Dunn—Puppet Maker
Caoimhe is a Wexford-based artist, specialising in street arts and spectacle. Folklore, the natural world, and history all influence her work, through which she invites participants and audiences to explore their own artistic potential—fostering a sense of community and shared experience—and to engage with an innate desire to be creative and to play.

Alla Shmyyhovska—Costume Maker
Alla Shmyhovska is a Longford-based Ukrainian artist, whose bespoke doll making gained international renown. In recent years Alla has been busy creating scenery, decorative items and holding expositions of her work and facilitating art workshops. Her recent works include a location on Longford Lights Festival, Craftmaster’s Cafe, Mad Hatters Week, Two Path Meet and many more events.

Poliona Shapkina—Fire/Aerial Performer
Polina Shapkina is an Irish-based contemporary circus artist and director. In her performance work she specialises in aerial dance and fire manipulation. Since 2019 she has presented a broad variety of original pieces of circus theatre with her company Erebidae Circus as well as more recently under the name VolkiDàna. Her mission is to immerse audiences in other worlds and synthesise highly potent experiences that live in the memory long after the show has finished.

Gavin Smith—Fire/Aerial Performer
Gavin is a fire and street performance artist. He is a member of the Babylon Inferno Fire Collective and is based in the Midlands.

Longford County Choir
Longford County Choir are based in St. Mel’s Cathedral and host several large concerts throughout the year. This is the choirs first involvement in Longford Lights.

Harveen Chinatamunee—Puppet Operator
Harveen is a street performer and props maker from Cavan.

Bula Bula Samba Band
Bula Bula Samba Band are a community based percussion group based in Longford. Known for their flamboyant costumes and funky rhythms Bula Bula always bring the party!
Open Call Artists

Derek McLoughlin
Derek is a visual artist based in Westport, Co. Mayo. The themes of his work are largely expressed through the manipulation of natural materials into sculptural forms, reengineering the natural world based on the attributes of the material and giving it a new context and meaning.

Hermes Mangialardo
Hermes Mangialardo is a visual and multimedia digital artist based in Italy. In 2006, he founded Plasmedia and went on to develop a series of animations for MTV Italia. Hermes’ vidoemapping artwork has been staged on major buildings all over Europe including the Berlin Tower and the Colosseum in Rome.

Patrina Prunty
A seasoned architectural designer and visual artist, Patrina’s journey is defined by self-motivation, versatility, and leadership. The interplay between her artistic sensibilities and architectural acumen defines her unique approach.

Emer O’Donnell
Emer has studied internationally having been awarded a full scholarship to Corning Museum of Glass to study engraving and recently studied with master engraver Wilhelm Vernam in Collins Barracks Dublin. Emer has exhibited in various galleries and exhibitions in Ireland and internationally.

Brandon Finnegan
The Tallaght Community Arts team has a history of unique sculptures, from a nature goddess made from willow trees to a giant witch broom for parade. Our latest project was a community build of lanterns at a special Halloween event held in the school garden, where the lanterns made by the children were showcased alongside the wire-frame nature themed lanterns created by Tallaght Community Arts.

Anna Wiercioch
Anna Wiercioch is a multidisciplinary artist and workshop facilitator based on the Cavan-Longford border. With a background in art, pedagogy, and music, her work explores abstraction, light, and texture through mixed media and installation. She has exhibited in the border counties and is passionate about engaging communities in creative processes. Anna is delighted to return to Longford Lights, bringing her unique approach to illuminated art.

Mick Cronin
Mick Cronin is a musician, composer and studio producer. This is Mick’s third time to work with Longford Lights creating the signature sound scapes that accompany many of the art installations around the site including the sound scape for Caroline Conway’s community installation, It Takes A Village.

Aoife Banville
Aoife Banville is a visual artist working in sculptural site-specific installations with a background in photography. She often places her work outdoors and is very interested in creating large-scale installations using repurposed, recycled and reappropriated materials. Commonplace objects and materials are repeatedly employed to create immersive and magical environments as she creates aerial light sculptures to alter the viewers’ sense of familiarity with a space. She has completed studies in both Fine Art and Photography and her work has been commissioned both nationally and internationally.

Serhii Khadzhava
Serhii is a creative new media artist with over 10 years of experience, inspired by creating unique visual and interactive experiences. Approach to work is based on continuous improvement and experimentation with new methods and technologies, with a focus on detail and aesthetics.

Melisande Souef
Strix Nebulosa (Melisande Souef) is a fire, LED, and circus performer who captivates with dazzling displays. French-born but Galway-based, Strix moved to Ireland as a falconer before embracing professional performing. Combining flow arts and character work, Strix lights up every event with passion and skill!

Nathan Sheridan
Nathan Sheridan is a film maker and music artist specialising in contemporary music video. In 2024 Nathan created a projection for Culture Night as part of the Light Bank project. For this year’s Longford Lights, Nathan is collaborating with sound designer Ryan Small.

Peter Crann
Peter Crann is a multidisciplinary artist known for his work as a painter, musician, and illustrator. Peter developed the Crankie Island Song Project during Covid with illustrators and musicians. A Crankie brings songs alive visually through a specially made Crankie Box (a vintage illuminated story-telling device) to unfold the imagery of the song in a theatrical and evocative way.

Hanlon Artworks
Hanlon Artworks was founded in 2016 by Stephanie and Kevin Hanlon to deliver quality arts experiences in educational and community settings in the midlands. Their mottto is “From fine art to fun art”, and their practise extends across a wide range of mediums including street art, upcycled art, drawing, workshops and project-based residencies. Hanlon Art are delighted to be back at Longford Lights again.

Helen Duncan
Helen Duncan works in ceramics and mixed media. Helen has a BA in Ceramics from Limerick College of Art & Design Ireland, attended University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Post graduate Ceramics and has a Masters of Art from Boston University. Helen has exhibited in both Ireland and the USA in solo and group exhibitions.

Lorraine Donohoe
Lorraine is a visual artist and sculptor based in Longford. She has been a core member of the Longford Lights crew since 2023 and is active in spectacle and craft work in the midlands.

Angela Tuite
Angela Tuite is an artist living in Edgeworthstown, Co Longford Ireland.
She paints mostly on both silk, canvas and antique slate. She is very active in community art initiatives and is a core member of the Maria Edgeworths Literary Festival.

Opus Company
Opus are a circus and spectacle company from Tampere, Finland. Their work explores circus and theatre—questioning the traditional confines of circus, exploring the realms of illusion and blurring the lines between what is real and what is imagined. This is Opus’ first time to Longford Lights.

Nicole Martin
Opus are a circus and spectacle company from Tampere, Finland. Their work explores circus and theatre—questioning the traditional confines of circus, exploring the realms of illusion and blurring the lines between what is real and what is imagined. This is Opus’ first time to Longford Lights.

Damien Keogh
Damien Keogh is a visual artist and lighting designer inspired by retired industrial machinery. Capturing the beauty of industrial engineering, he transforms these relics into immersive, light-filled art installations. He has exhibited nationally at renowned music festivals like Body & Soul, All Together Now and Electric Picnic, captivating audiences with his unique vision.