IHF Seed Grant 2021 – 2022 recipients

Written By Maria Noonan-McDermott

Seed Grant Recipient

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that I have been awarded a seed grant fund from The Irish Hospice Foundation supported by the Creative Ireland Programme, to help kick start my touring solo exhibition, ‘Time-Lapse’.

‘‘Over the last five years while helping care for her mother who was living with Alzheimer’s, Leitrim based artist Maria has been “unwittingly working towards” her exhibition Time-Lapse. The daily tasks, complex emotions, and thoughts arising while caring for a dying parent over a long time inform all the work in this exhibition. For example, the complex extended grief of Alzheimer’s with its untethering of time and the archaeological uncovering of the entire life of a parent that arrives with their death. All this creative exploration of grief, loss and love will be reflected through her painting, poetry, and installation.’’

Funding has been awarded for 27 Seed Grant projects to support creative exploration of dying, death, and bereavement, an extraordinary reflection of the impact of the pandemic on all communities, supported by the Creative Ireland Programme.

Since the announcement of Seeds Grants availability in October, we have received 91 applications to support people and communities in their creative exploration of grief and loss. This is the second round of funding that has been made available for such projects this year.

The 27 chosen recipients, representing 11 counties in total, reflect an eclectic range of work, practice, medium, approach, abilities, and age groups. They include acute hospitals, residential care homes, nursing homes, secondary schools, community groups, migrating populations, and the marginalised. 

The themes and areas to be touched on explore all areas of death and grief from life limiting illnesses and early years bereavement to suicide and our funeral and burial customs. The memorialising and processing of grief will be reflected in the projects through use of photography, creative and documentary film making, glass fusions, story-telling, stage plays, poetry, translations, audio recordings, memorabilia, music, poetry, and the more traditional arts, such as painting, quilting and knitting.  

Arts and Cultural Engagement Officer at IHF Dominic Campbell says:

“As the long-term impact of COVID continues, the creative resilience of individuals and communities becomes more profound. Each initiative is extraordinary. A demonstration of care and empathy. A public health service and an emotional marriage of culture and care.”

Projects will develop from December 2021 until April 2022 in Dublin (10), Cavan (1), Galway (2), Leitrim (1), Louth (1), Mayo (2), Offaly (1), Sligo (1), Tipperary (4), Waterford (1), Heir Island, West Cork (1), Wexford (1), Wicklow (1).

2022 recipients

Maria Noonan-McDermott

Irish Artist Maria Noonan-McDermott Bio


Originally from Donegal, Irish artist and poet Maria Noonan McDermott now lives and works from her studio in Kinlough, Co. Leitrim.


Heavily influenced by the impressionist movement, her work focuses on the study of light and form in Irish landscapes.

With a love of folklore and story-telling, Noonan McDermott's influences lie in rural Ireland, it is in these magical places that share a colloquial history where stories and the people are often ingrained into the landscape.


I began my artistic career in Dublin in 1985 and qualified in Fashion and Design. I returned to college and completed a certificate in visual education before continuing on to study Fine Art. In the year 1990, I had my first solo exhibition of paintings. The feedback and encouragement I received helped direct me on my current path.


My work has always been influenced by a deep connection with the natural environment, the beautiful rugged Irish landscape with its endlessly changing skies and dramatic seas. I am equally fascinated by the people that the land holds so tightly and am firmly bound in kinship with their poetic writing, their stories and soulful lyrics.


I've always been in awe of the storyteller, those gifted people who so fluidly guide you into their fantasy worlds, who submerge you so deeply, you cry, laugh and often seethe with anger and frustration. To me, this is true magic, possessing the rare skill of creating something from nothing, evoking such passion and emotion.


Growing up I found words didn't come so easily to me, art and writing became my outlet. I was transformed into the 'Cailleach Feasa', the storyteller. I recorded and recollected all the tales from times gone by, breathing life back into places and quirky characters I met along the way.


I was raised in a small village in Donegal and like most small communities in Ireland, it was filled with the most amazing characters.


As a child, my head was filled with fantastical stories told and dramatised by neighbours and family, the gatekeepers of local history. These tales, were, of course, exaggerated and embellished with such fun and gusto, like only true Irish seanchai can, that I couldn't help growing up with a great love of the people around me and all their fascinating antics.


In my work, I narrate the stories with colour and humour as over the years they've formed and shaped in my memory.
My paintings become the text and you the reader and as the reader, you are challenged to participate and choose your own journey. Thus, enabling the story to live all over again!


This attachment is ingrained in my work and I strive to bring forth its warmth in the most honest and pure way I know how.

https://www.marianoonan-mcdermott.com
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