HeARTlands - Collaborators & Supporters

The Power of Creative Collaboration

We believe there is something incredibly powerful about creative collaboration. When artists, writers, photographers, storytellers and other creatives bring their different skills, experiences and perspectives together, new ideas and possibilities begin to emerge. Collaboration allows us to learn from one another, share resources and knowledge, build confidence and create things that may never have been possible alone. At its best, it is not about everyone thinking or creating in the same way, but about valuing what each person uniquely brings — and discovering what can happen when those individual strengths come together.

Shelley Corcoran

Photography, Literature & Collaboration

Photographer, writer and visual artist Shelley Corcoran has been part of Longford’s creative community for many years, and our creative paths have crossed with hers in different ways throughout that time.

As we began developing HeARTlands and thinking about creating our own exhibitions and creative community, an unexpected, almost serendipitous invitation from Shelley provided the opportunity to put those ideas into practice. She approached us about curating and hosting an art exhibition as part of her pilot art festival — and what began as a fun and interesting opportunity became our first HeARTlands Exhibition.

With no suitable exhibition spaces available in Longford town, we transformed the upstairs room of the local Temperance Hall ourselves, building a temporary exhibition wall and creating a welcoming space where visitors could experience the artwork and then sit, talk and connect. Shelley presented her print and photography exhibition downstairs, while multidisciplinary artist Hope Feeney presented a separate mental-health-themed exhibition in the Civic Suite.

It was a wonderfully successful few days and, although HeARTlands was already taking shape, that first exhibition would not have happened in quite the way it did without Shelley’s invitation.

Our connections do go back much further than May 2025. Phil has a long history of creative collaboration with Shelley, having installed several of her photographic exhibitions and, in 2017, exhibiting alongside Shelley and fellow artist Angelika Sowul in 'Three Thoughts, One Breath' at Backstage Theatre. Anna has known Shelley through Longford’s creative community, including her involvement with Cruthú Arts Festival and Longford Writers Group, so there have been many shared conversations, projects and creative encounters over the years.

Today, that relationship is developing into new possibilities. We are exploring ways of bringing art and photography together with literary work by local writers as part of future HeARTlands exhibitions, including our ambitions to take HeARTlands beyond Ireland to our twinned towns in France and other international locations.

We are also currently collaborating with Shelley on a project connected with Inchcleraun, exploring and helping to preserve the island’s extraordinary history, stories and mythology. This is particularly interesting given our personal interest in Irish mythology, and HeARTlands core themes of Landcapes, Legends and Love Stories.

Shelley brings her own distinctive skills, knowledge and perspective to the photography and literary strands of HeARTlands — along with a wonderfully quirky personality that makes collaborating with her all the more fun.

We’re delighted that our creative paths continue to cross and excited to see where they may lead next.

To connect with Shelley you'll find her on social media @ shelleycorcoranphotography and her website is Shelley Corcoran Photography