Órla Kelly

We are delighted to welcome artist Órla Kelly back to our Artist Studio for the Creative Development of The Toddler Take Over, now in its 11th year!

"It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child. I would say, that it takes a community to help anyone explore their potential. The community in Draíocht seems to do this effortlessly, and for me it is most visible during Toddler Take Over.

This, it's 11th year, there were many collaborators who formed part of that community: Sebastian Pizarro, a wonderful lighting designer who created a camping space filled with interactive seasons in one immersive area, and the dynamic and talented visual artists Jane Groves and Deirdre O’Reilly, who brought the auditorium and studio spaces to life with dreamy excitement. These are among many more incredibly talented artist friends and Draíocht staff who very generously shared their time, energy and professional creative skills to make the Toddler Take Over happen. It’s a real joy to work with friends and to make work that is playful, beautiful, creatively challenging and engaging.

There is so much that happens behind the scenes of Toddler Take Over: late nights of making and installing, checking health and safety elements, searching for materials, inventing when they can’t be found, carefully shaping both the smallest moments and the largest environments, and always playing, laughing and dancing together.

Yet by the time the Take Over day itself arrives, any challenges that existed seem to transform magically into a celebration of creative community — artists and young children alike, united by the same innate need to invent, play, create and share in the joy of imagination. Making birds with wings of mint leaves, taking baths with feathers and bubbles, playing in soil beneath a rainbow, dancing with butterfly wings and clouds — all of it becomes part of a shared imaginative world, opening us to the endless possibilities of creativity, play and collective imagination."

Artist Órla Kelly