Heart on Your Sleeve
Arts Council Creative Places Award, Kildare (2024)
“Heart on Your Sleeve” is a participatory arts project by Paul Byrne, supported by the Arts Council through the Creative Places Impact Award, delivered in Kildare in 2024. Working with six youth groups and over 100 participants, the project centres on identity, self-expression and wellbeing, using a structured journalling process as the foundation for creative output. Participants are guided through reflective exercises that encourage them to explore their thoughts, experiences and sense of self, creating a space for honest expression within a supported group setting.
Building from this process, participants translate their reflections into personalised creative outcomes, resulting in tangible pieces that carry individual meaning while contributing to a collective narrative. The project emphasises authorship, inclusion and emotional literacy, demonstrating how creative practice can support young people in understanding and articulating their identity. “Heart on Your Sleeve” reflects a scalable model of socially engaged art, with potential for wider rollout across educational and community contexts.
