Who We Are

Lucy Medlycott started off her career studying Fine Art Sculpture in Limerick School of Art and Design under Tom Murphy, Louise Walsh and Martin Folan. While in Limerick she discovered the versatility & electricity of the street as a space for arts exploration.

Since graduating from Limerick in 1993, Lucy, together with a group of colleagues, went on to found Bui Bolg Outdoor Arts Company in Wexford. Lucy worked with Buí Bolg in many capacities over the years from community artist to costume designer to manager. Lucy orchestrated many of their flagship projects, bringing their work from Ballina to Beijing and from Mullingar to Memphis and more.

Lucy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and previous winner in the South East County & City Women in Business Awards.

Lucy co-founded the Irish Street Arts, Circus & Spectacle Network with Chantal McCormick of Fidget Feet in late 2010. Lucy has worked as Project Manager of ISACS since 2014, and is currently Executive Director. She has big dreams for the future!

Full-time (39 hours per week) – Annual remuneration: €33,000

Amanda graduated from Dublin City University in 2011 with a higher-level degree in Contemporary Culture and Society. The following year, she went on to obtain a Masters Degree in Public Relations from Dublin Institute of Technology.

Since graduating, she has worked predominately in the IT sector, working as a Business Development Executive, and a Technical advisor among others. She is no stranger to business and has worked with clients that are household names both in Ireland and Europe.

Amanda has always been drawn to creative practices and in 2018 she decided to return to education to study her passion – fine art, focusing on developing her skills in painting in particular. She is due to receive her degree in Art and Design from Carlow Institute of Technology in 2020.

Part-time (20 hours per week) – Annual remuneration: €14,000

Founding member of Waterford Spraoi, now working as freelance programmer and manager on various festivals, including Spraoi, Cat Laughs, Kilkenomics, and Winterval Waterford.

Previous work has included St Patricks Festivals Dublin and Cork, and Tall Ships Waterford. Member of the Arts Council of Ireland from 2014-2019. Graduated from WIT with degree in bi-lingual business administration.

[Appointed 30/04/2019]

Niamh has worked with Waterford Spraoi for the past 18 years, initially as an artist but in recent years as an Arts Administrator and Financial Manager.

She has a National Diploma in Fine Art from WIT, a FETAC level 6 qualification in Arts Administration and am also an ACCA Certified Accounting Technician. Niamh also regularly partakes in up-skill training with the Arts Council and Waterford Chamber of Commerce covering areas such as governance, data protection, financial reporting, employment legislation and child protection.

[Appointed 12/04/2016]

Henrik Gard is originally from Sweden but for the last seven years he’s been based in Ireland as an acrobat and circus performer.

He says that his career caught speed in 2015 when he was part of the ISACS NEST programme creating and performing his own solo show. Today he is co-director of the company Cikada Circus, founded in 2017, with his acrobatic partner Ali Stanger.

He is also one of the founding members of the acrobatic ensemble group Síolta Circus, and performs regularly with Belfast company Tumble Circus.

If that is not enough, Henrik is a leading figure and initiator of Irish Acro, Ireland’s first and only acrobatics convention now in its 5th year running.

[Appointed 05/05/2020]

Mark O’Donnell was appointed by Macnas in April 2019 to become the company’s new Executive Director.

Mark’s background is in public management, and he has over 20 years experience working in Galway across a broad range of functions for both City and County local authorities, as well as a number of years as Director of the West Regional Authority, where he managed EU co-funded projects.He led the business engagement component of Galway’s successful European Capital of Culture bid in 2016, and went on to project manage the early stages of the company set-up before returning to Galway City Council in 2017 to work on capital project planning & delivery, and more recently, HR management.

A graduate of NUI Galway, Mark has academic qualifications in Law, Finance, Corporate Governance & Management

[Appointed 05/05/2020]

Choreographer, teacher, facilitator and international advocate for Aerial Art. Chantal trained as a dancer and choreographer at the London School of Contemporary Dance and the National Centre for Circus.

1999-2008 toured with established dance and circus companies in the UK, Trinidad, Europe and Australia. 2004 – present, directs, choreographs, and performs, indoors and outdoors, nationally and internationally as Executive Artistic Director of Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre, Ireland’s leading and the first Aerial Dance Company.

She is a founding member of ISACS, Festival Director of the Irish Aerial Dance Fest, Professional Development Manager of the Irish Aerial Creation Centre, and associate partner on Creative Europe projects Vertical Dance Forum and School of Spectacle European Arts Academy.

[Appointed 19/04/2018]

Nicholas trained at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He works as a self-employed theatre maker; devising, performing and producing new work with a diverse range of companies nationwide.

Since 2012, he has collaborated with Waterford Spraoi, directing their annual festival parade and bespoke productions. In 2016, Nicholas began creating and producing his own street theatre productions under the company name ‘Curious State’, since then, he has produced two shows; “Morbid & Sons” and “The Foolhardy Three”. Both productions were Arts Council funded and have toured extensively. Nicholas is also co-founder of A Little Room – Theatre Development Centre, a space free for artists to use to develop and test new work.

[Appointed 19/04/2018]

Catherine is the Manager of Cork Community Art Link, joining the organisation in 2017. Catherine has a background in Arts Management has worked in the Irish and international arts sector for many years in both a creative and administrative capacity.

She has previously directed the Bristol Biennial, UK as well as working at the Malakta Art Factory, Finland and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, in addition to working on various projects as a curator and freelance arts manager. Catherine currently lectures in the school of Digital Arts and Humanities at University College Cork. As CCAL Manager Catherine is responsible for the general management of the organisation, overseeing creative programme development, funding and strategic development, HR, PR, Voluntary Participation Programmes and European Mobility Projects.

[Appointed 19/04/2018]

Elisa is a professional circus and street performer and maker who has been working in the art, multimedia and performance fields for the last two decades. Elisa’s background and experience covers a broad range of interests and skills that vary from puppetry and clowning to architectural studies.

Lately Elisa has been undertaking projects and responsibilities in the socially engaged art world, exploring innovative models of creative engagement in community work with both local and European partners.

[Appointed 30/04/2019]