Leitrim artist elected to Irish arts body after 50 years creative work

Leitrim artist Jackie McKenna has been elected to Aosdána, the prestigious arts affiliation, at its 44th General Assembly in Dublin.

Elevation to the national arts organisation is achieved through peer nomination and election and is limited to 250 living artists who have produced a distinguished body of work thorughout their careers.

Jackie McKenna, a visual artist from Manorhamilton, was born in 1958. She studied Fine Art in Sligo and completed her degree in Sculpture at Dun Laoghaire College of Art.

Jackie has played a significant role in the development and promotion of the Arts in Ireland as an active member of the Sculpture Society of Ireland in the 1980’s, serving on the Cultural Relations Committee for eight years, and was also a co-founder of the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in 1997.

Over forty years, she has created large outdoor works through public commissions.

She has focused her creative practice on social engagement; this includes working with refugees, asylum seekers, prisoners, and family carers within communities to evoke thoughtful responses to place, people and situations.

In 2024, a sculpture McKeana created was unveiled in Ballinamore to honour the Private Patrick Kelly and Trainee Garda Sheehan who were shot dead on the of December, 1983 by a Provisional IRA gang in Derrada Wood.

At the time, Jackie said she hoped her artwork would bring healing to the family and community. The design of the memorial portrays two standing stones set beside each other. The stones represent the two pillars of society, i.e., the Gardaí and the Defence Forces. The circular hole in the centre of the monument represents the hollow void left in the families’ lives following the death of their loved ones. She said holed stones are believed to have the power to heal.

Aosdána was founded in 1981 to honour artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland, and to assist members in devoting their energies fully to their art.

The group of - currently - 247 artists includes creatives working in a wide range of disciplines including architecture, choreography, music, literature and visual art.

Her most recent exhibition in the Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon reflects the intrinsic relationship between Art and Activism visible in her art practice.