Take Me to the River 2025
Take Me to the River is a discursive public engagement programme immersing our communities in the life of our rivers through creative responses with artistic, scientific and ecological expertise.
"Entwining creative arts with scientific and ecological knowledge, Take Me to The River ignites public awareness and positive communal conservationism within our local environs. Experimentation, observation, experience and exploration are common research methods to both artistic and scientific disciplines, pushing boundaries and uncovering new truths. Together, Take Me to The River strives to create active communal stewardship of Meath’s magnificent lands and waterways."
- Belinda Quirke, Director Solstice/Swift
In 2025, Solstice Arts Centre and Swift Cultural Centre, in collaboration with architectural practice Cineál: Research + Design, presents a new series of public engagements throughout the year. Connecting land and water, traverse the Athboy River, celebrate riverside life cycles in Trim, and immerse your senses in the heritage, mythology and ecosystems of the River Nanny and Boyne Valley.
Cineál will facilitate experimental forms of mapping as a way to understand the iterative ecology between communities and their environments. Introducing sectional drawings for each site to narrate the ecosystem from the riverbed to the treetops, together with participants they will create an accessible record of the river’s environmental condition, specific to the place and time.
Cineál will use qualitative surveying exercises of observation and listening through drawing and notation. At each location, participants will therefore contribute to the ever growing ‘Creative Catchment Map’ to record information, activities and scientific enquiry.
Combining our strengths, creative and ecological actions, Take Me to the River 2025 announces partnership with The Boyne Rivers Trust.
"The Boyne Rivers Trust shares common goals with Solstice, to engage and learn how to make the Boyne catchment ecosystem and communities thrive together."
- Jack Rogers, Boyne Rivers Trust.
Creative public engagements will be initiated with The Boyne Rivers Trust to highlight their ‘Floodplain Woodlands Project’ which seeks to protect, enhance and restore the water bodies of the Boyne catchment, creating “wild, healthy, natural rivers, valued by all.
Extending their Eco Showboat expeditions in 2022 and 2023, artists and climate activists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly of The School of Looking have devised a ‘Catchment Festival’, supported by Research Ireland Discover Programme, Meath County Council Arts Office, and the Department of Education, within the Boyne Valley. Celebrating its unique aquatic and mythological environment, groups will be invited to take part in a programme of STEM and creative activities over 2 days in June.
LAUNCH & INFORMATION EVENING
Tuesday 13 May | 6pm - 8pm | Free, booking essential | Solstice Arts Centre, Navan
Inviting environmental activists, ecologists, landowners, educators, artists, families, individuals, and community groups to Solstice Arts Centre, get involved in Take Me To The River public engagement activities 2025. Encouraging collaboration, hear from the Meath County Council Biodiversity Office, Boyne Rivers Trust, The School of Looking, The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), LAWPRO, and a diverse range of community climate action groups promoting citizen science initiatives and community activism.
For more information, please contact deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
GET INVOLVED
May
Tuesday 13th: TAKE ME TO THE RIVER 2025 Launch
Sunday 25th: COMMUNITY_SEED_SOIL – A Compost Carnival with Boyne Rivers Trust & Athboy Allotment celebrating Biodiversity Week.
June
The School of Looking - CATCHMENTS 2025 engagements along the Boyne River.
August
Saturday 9th: WATER_CONNECTION_LIFE CYCLES at Swift Cultural Centre and Porchfield River Walk, Trim.
Fri 15th - Sun 17th: THE SCHOOL OF LOOKING Creative Writing Programme with Anthony Murphy.
Sunday 24th: Celebrate National Heritage Week with Picnic at the Park - RIVER PAST_RIVER FUTURE at Brú na Bóinne National Park at Netterville.
September
Sun 27th: AGRICULTURE_HABITAT_REWILD along the River Nanny from Staffordstown to Kentstown.
November
TBD: PLAINS_RESILIENCE_PLANT near Oldbridge, Co. Meath