WHAT Staff

Claire Meaney

Claire has been working with Waterford Healing Arts Trust since 2007. She has a BA in Fine Art from DIT (2002) and a Certificate in Youth Arts from NUI Maynooth (2006). In 2010, Claire completed an MA in Arts and Heritage Management at WIT and wrote her thesis on The Artist’s Perspective of Making Collaborative Art in a Hospital Context in Ireland. In 2010, she was awarded an Arts & Health Bursary Award from the Arts Council to develop her arts participation practice.

Maeve Butler

Assistant Director
maevem.butler@hse.ie

Maeve joined the team at WHAT in 2017, having worked in arts management and communications for 20 years – in theatre, dance, music, festival and venue management – and the community and voluntary sector. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Relations from DIT and a Master’s Degree in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from UCD. Maeve’s interest in arts and health began with her MA thesis research into arts in palliative care settings in 2011, the first such research of its kind in Ireland.

Sinead Twomey

Administrator
sineadC.twomey@hse.ie

Sinead studied Business in Waterford before embarking on a 20 year career with the HSE, working in various departments throughout University Hospital Waterford (UHW), from Procurement to the Laboratory and many more in between. Outside the HSE, Sinead is co-founder and director of Waterford based lighting design company DLight. In her free time she enjoys outdoor activities, cooking and she loves to travel.

Aisling Kennedy

Project Co-ordinator
aislingc.kennedy@hse.ie

Aisling joins Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) in the new role of Project Co-ordinator, managing our Iontas Arts and Mental Health programme, our exhibitions programme and the UHW Art Collection. Aisling previously worked with the Arts in Health team at Children’s Health Ireland. She recently completed an MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at University College Dublin, she is AXELOS Global Best Practice qualified in project management and has a BA in English Literature and Art History.

Emma Eager

Project Co-ordinator, artsandhealth.ie
Emma.Eager@hse.ie

Emma has managed artsandhealth.ie the national resource website for arts and health, on behalf of Waterford Healing Arts Trust since 2017 and came on board as a full-time member of WHAT staff in 2022. Emma has worked in the field of arts and health since 2011, having previously been a project manager and then programme manager with Helium Arts, the national children’s arts and health organisation, with whom she developed an award-winning community film project for teenagers living with health conditions. Emma holds a First Class Honours B.Sc. in Communications: Film and Broadcasting and an M.Phil with Distinction in Popular Literature, both from Trinity College Dublin.

Ann Murphy

Assistant Arts Administrator

Ann joined the WHAT team in Nov 2021. A native of Waterford City, Ann has worked in administrative roles throughout her career, with companies such as Ernst & Young and Bausch & Lomb, and also in further education. Ann has also trained in a range of complementary therapies, including Reflexology, Reiki and Aromatherapy, and has a keen interest in all forms of healing through different mediums. To relax, she enjoys her three ‘G’s: the Greenway, Gardening and Genealogy.

Eileen Reid

Music Co-ordinator
eileen.reid@hse.ie

Eileen joined the team at WHAT in late 2019 as Music Co-ordinator. She has a great love for music and is a traditional Irish musician (fiddle, flute and whistle). Eileen studied photography in Waterford and works as a freelance photographer, exhibiting locally when she can. Most recently Eileen also completed a course in Social Media Marketing. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, sea swimming and experimenting with all things creative.