2026 PROGRAMME OF ARTIST AND CITIZEN-LED EVENTS AT THE KINSHIP ECOLAB
The KinShip EcoLab is a hub for eco-arts and citizen-led education at Tramore Valley Park.
In 2026, Nature Network Ireland are the lead KinShip community leading on all aspects of EcoLab programming in Tramore Valley Park. The KinShip Project was initiated by collaborators Lennon Taylor in partnership with Cork City Council. Local partners have included Cork Healthy Cities, Nature Network Ireland, Green Spaces for Health, MTU Clean Technology Centre, and UCC Environmental Research Institute.
If you have an idea for a citizen-led event, please contact kinshipassistance@gmail.com.
Running from May-October 2026, the events programme is always growing. To keep up to date with the programme, please follow us on Instagram [@]kinshipcork. If you have an idea for a citizen-led event, please contact kinshipassistance[@]gmail.com.
This year’s programme will include:
• 2 artist placements
• 6 citizen-led events
• 7 artist-led events
• 1 artist residency
Artist Residency
In addition to the two KinShip artist placements, this residency is supported through the project’s partnership with lead organisation Nature Network Ireland.
Artist Ann Lambe is collaborating with a Nature Network Ireland initiative to raise awareness of the bird species inhabiting Tramore Valley Park, culminating in a unique, one-of-a-kind zine to be shared with the public on 23 May as part of Biodiversity Week. This placement is further supported by Community Foundation Ireland.
About Ann Lambe
Ann Lambe is a visual artist working in painting, drawing/mixed media and murals in Cork City. Her art practice focuses on nature and wildlife to inspire an appreciation of the natural world and the conservation of our species, habitats and biodiversity. With a BA in design for print, Ann graduated with an MA in Art and Design Education in 2011 form Crawford College of Art and Design. Ann’s exhibition titled ‘Feathered Friends’, featuring Irish endangered bird species was launched for Culture Night 2025, supported by Cork County Council. She collaborated with the Cork City Climate Action Unit for the ‘Hear their Call’ project facilitating workshops for 4 Cork City schools.
Awarded the Creative Communities grant scheme from Cork City Council 2023 she painted a mural about the conservation of
the Swift with BirdWatch Cork Branch. She is a member of Sample studios, exhibited in their Summer show and for Cork County
Councils Winter exhibition 2025.
2026 PROGRAMME LAUNCH 1PM 18TH APRIL
Saturday, 18 April 1:00pm-2:00pm Den Talamh Film Screening by filmmaker Linda Curtin
A contemplative film by Linda Curtin tracing the making of den talamh, the award-winning EcoLab designed by Fuinneamh Workshop Architects (Seán Antòin Ó Muirí). Observing the gathering of materials, the rhythms of labour, and the unfolding collaboration, it captures a building process grounded in care, interdependence, and a close relationship to the land. Through Curtin’s lens, the concept of kinship is revealed as an active process of exchange between disciplines, people, the built form and the living ground from which it arises.
Screening location is the Cork City Council Chambers. Running time, 11 min.
2026 PROGRAMME IN FULL
NATURE & VISUAL ART Saturday, 23 May, 11am-1pm Zine Launch & Birding Walk with Nature Network Ireland
In celebration of Biodiversity Week artist Ann Lambe will launch a zine focused on birds of Tramore Valley Park. Nature Network Ireland ecologist Sarah Barry will then lead participants on a bird identification walk through the park.
DANCE Sunday, 24 May, 12pm-1:30pm Remembering Through the Landscape: Performance with Inma Pavon Dance Company
Join us for a new, site-specific movement piece by IPDC. The performance begins in the EcoLab and moves across several locations in the park with dancers guiding the audience members throughout.
STORYTELLING Saturday, 27 June, 11am-12:30pm Listening to the Land: Story as Practice of Kinship with Paddy Doyle
A workshop exploring storytelling as a way of connecting with place and the more-than-human world. Through guided journeying, simple practices of attention, and creative writing, participants will listen for what is already present and give voice to what they encounter. No experience needed.
SOUND Saturday, 18 July, 2pm-3pm Creative Soundwalk with Seán Taylor
Celebrate World Listening Day with this one-hour Creative Soundwalk hosted by artist and qualified Deep Listening instructor Seán Taylor. The soundwalk in Tramore Valley Park will introduce participants to the study of listening, creative soundwalking and the meditative practices of Tai Chi and Qigong. The soundwalk is intended to enhance participants’ perception of sound and silence, offering an engaged approach to listening to the unique soundscape of the park.
SOUND Sunday 3 October 2pm-3.30pm Cluas 2026: Immersive sound art in Tramore Valley Park with various artists
Cluas 2026 returns to the EcoLab, for a celebration of live sound art at Tramore Valley Park. Featuring some of Ireland's leading sound artists including Danny McCarthy, Mick O'Shea, Seán Taylor and others, performing an unplugged improvisation based on the KinShip project themes of the subterranean, the ground and the aerial.
To find out about all past events follow this link: What's On
Group walking in a line in Tramore Valley Park. Photo courtesy of LennonTaylor
About The KinShip Project
KinShip - we are not separate from nature, but an interdependent part of it.
The KinShip Eco-Lab is an outcome of the KinShip Project, a durational public artwork at Tramore Valley Park by Cork City Council in partnership with artists Lennon Taylor (Marilyn Lennon and Sean Taylor and supported by Creative Ireland. The KinShip Project is a long-term public artwork, developing a variety of socially engaged public initiatives at Tramore Valley Park, starting in 2022.
Situated on a remediated city landfill, the project honours the need to confront the reality of damaged places, such as Tramore Valley Park, recognising that many environments are irreversibly transformed due to human activities. As part of this work, we grapple with the entangled histories and ongoing consequences of environmental damage, coming together to take action within this context.
KinShip is a space to consider our relationship to public land, the interrelationship we have with all species of the natural world, to address the legacy of ‘throw-away’ culture, to engage with new modes of managing waste and to develop an ethics of response and 'response-ability'.
To achieve this, there is an ongoing creative programme of citizen-led skills and knowledge-based exchanges, artist's placements, and a focused series of creative interventions in the park. All of these elements endeavour to put the local community at the heart of the KinShip project.
The KinShip EcoLab programme is managed by Nature Network Ireland in 2026.
The KinShip Project commenced in 2021 as one of 15 initiatives nationally supported by the Creative Climate Action Award.
At this link, you’ll find an archive of the Kinship project since it began in 2021, documenting its evolution through events, collaborations, and community engagement. The site includes information about the art project programme, the wide range of contributors, participating artists, local partners, funders, and the ethos that has shaped the project over the years.
View of Cork city from Tramore Valley Park. Photo courtesy of LennonTaylor
GETTING THERE
By car, Tramore Valley Park is accessed via the South Link Road. There are 3 car parks within the site.
The park is accessible by public transport. Bus routes 206, 219, and 223 stop at South Douglas Road, from which a short walk down Half Moon Lane leads to the park. See map below
The EcoLab is a thatched roof structure located along the main looped path, east of the pump track and west of Carroll’s Bog.
