About

What is Mucky Picnic?

Here at Mucky Picnic I like to encourage imaginative play and creative expression through messy arts and crafts. Whether it’s a birthday party, a session for a mum and baby group, or a themed event at a cultural venue. Messy canvas workshops have always been my most popular events, but I also do a variety of other creative workshops for children and their families, from paint-making to playdough. So, have a look around, and let’s make a mess together!

Mucky Picnic came from a combination of many things. I have been working in education, particularly museums/heritage and arts education, since 2011. It was work that allowed me to try out so many different projects, combine a lot of themes and have a lot of fun in just about every discipline! I’ve developed and facilitated programmes for Kerry County Museum, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and the Irish Family History Centre. I also worked in the gorgeous Giddy Studios in Dundrum for a year and a half, which involved creative work with children and their families. I decided to embark on my own creative journey, so when my maternity leave came to an end, Mucky Picnic was born!

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Notable Programmes

I love coming up with ways to blend a lot of different subjects, particularly ones that seem conflicting (arts and science, crafts and code). Every child learns things differently – I don’t believe there is ever just one way to achieve something. This is why every programme I have developed follows VARK learning styles (Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinaesthetic). Maybe a child learns more visually, other children may learn by reading, or listening. Kinaesthetic learning is all about hands-on activities and learning by doing. Each programme has incorporated different elements of VARK, to ensure children can learn at their own pace and in their own way.

I was Education and Outreach Officer for EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and the Irish Family History Centre. While there I developed a number of programmes, including the hugely popular Tiny Tots Tuesday; Techxbit: Coding Culture (a STEAM programme focusing utilising code and creativity); Pick Up the Past (a handling collection programme); and the myStory programme with the Irish Family History Centre, which encourage children to research their own family’s history. I had a lot of fun developing these programmes. In 2020 EPIC received the Sandford Award, a prestigious museum education award. I was incredibly proud as the programmes I had developed while working there were included as part of the application. I’ll always look back on my time at EPIC and the IFHC as a hugely rewarding experience.