Image: artist Eleanor Duffin
Artist commissioned to explore Wexford and Normandy’s heritage and legacy.
Wexford County Council’s Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with Wexford Arts Office is pleased to announce artist Eleanor Duffin as the recipient of a new arts commission which explores Wexford and Normandy’s shared heritage and legacy. This commission is funded through Wexford’s Creative Ireland programme and will involve the creative participation of local communities in Wexford and Normandy in 2026-2027. This will culminate in a new body of artworks, made in collaboration with local communities, involving music, performance and visual arts. These artworks will be showcased as part of a major group exhibition commissioned by Wexford Arts Office in partnership with Wexford Arts Centre in October 2027, to coincide with ‘Millenium: 2027 European Year of the Normans’ as part of their contemporary arts trail.
Over the course of this commission, the artist Eleanor Duffin will explore the complex historical and contemporary connections between Wexford and Normandy through the themes of the sea, language and shared acts of listening. In keeping with the ethos of the Creative Ireland programme, this commission will be shaped through a programme of community engagement activities, ensuring local perspectives, memories, and experiences are embedded in the creative process and are reflected in the final artworks.
“Growing up in Wexford, the coastline has always been part of how I understand home. Returning to it through this project, I want to think with people about the histories these waters carry and how they continue to shape ideas of identity, belonging and place. Rather than beginning with fixed answers, I'm interested in creating opportunities for conversation and exchange, allowing the project to develop through encounters with people, landscape and language” . E Duffin.
The creative participation of local communities will play an important role in informing the commission, ensuring the work reflects the unique identity and character of the area. As a starting point, Eleanor intends to work with communities through song and voice, using the collective process of writing a sea shanty to bring people together, and through open conversations. Sea shanties have long connected people through shared labour and rhythm and the artist sees the sea shanty as a gentle point of departure for thinking about movement across water and cultural exchange.
Eleanor Duffin Biography
Eleanor is a visual artist, born and raised in Wexford, Ireland and currently lives and works between Bristol, UK and Wexford, IE. Her visual art practice is research-led and moves between sculpture, film, sound and text. Recurring concerns within her practice are the role of verbal and text-based language in the process of making, the relationship between the female body and traditional sculptural materials and the nature of co-working with both human and non-human entities. Eleanor is an Associate Lecturer teaching on the BA and MA Fine Art courses at Bath Spa University, UK. She recently completed a practice-led PhD in Contemporary Visual Art at University of Hasselt, Belgium in late 2025.
If you would like to find out more about this arts commission and/ or get involved, contact
Wexford Arts Office
Tel: 053 9196369
or email arts@wexfordcoco.ie