2026 DoubleTAKE Group Exhibition
We are very proud to announce the launch of “Interpretations” the 2026 Group Exhibition by DoubleTAKE Supported Arts Studio.
The exhibition launch will take place at 11am on Tuesday 25th August 2026 in Rua Red Café, Rua Red, South Dublin Arts Centre, Parthalán Place, Tallaght, Dublin 24.
The 11 Exhibiting DoubleTAKE Artists are: Conor Brien, Hannah Clare, James Coughlan, Eva Doran, Pat Mason, Ben O’Callaghan, David O’Regan, Brendan Reid, Ken Shanahan, David Singleton, and Shane Tierney.
The artists have worked closely with their DoubleTAKE Artist Mentors and carefully selected pieces that they want to share with the world!
We hope you'll come along and join us at Rua Red Café to celebrate the launch on Tuesday 25th August, but if you can't make it, the exhibition will run from then until Monday 21st September.
TCA at Spraoi Festival 2026
The TCA Festival Team were delighted to attend Spraoi 2026 as part of its delegates programme.
We had the honour of meeting with Spraoi Director T.V. Honan who was so generous with his time, knowledge and experience. We then had a tour of Spraoi arts studios to view the beautiful art works created by the highly talented Spraoi team and met with many national and international festival organisations and artists. Michael and his team in Spraoi studios were equally generous with their time, expertise and experience and it has been so inspirational to spend time with artists and festival makers of such high calibre.
As TCA prepares for its 2-day arts festival "The Chronicles of Tallaght" (Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th October 2026), we found this visit and these creative connections to be so energising, inspirational and extremely valuable. We can't thank the Spraoi team enough!
If you haven't been to the Spraoi Arts Festival in Waterford, please treat yourself and make arrangements for 2027! You will not be sorry! It's a 3-day weekend of free arts activities, performances you will never forget, family fun, pure joy and creative offerings in abundance.
Thank you T.V., Michael and all of the wonderful artistic team at Sproai, we will never forget your kindness and generosity.
TCA Seek Additional Board Members
TCA are currently seeking additional members to sit on our board.
The TCA board is a voluntary group who meet approximately 6 times a year. They advise the TCA management team on matters of policy and offer guidance to ensure the organisation is run correctly and adheres to a high standard of professionalism and best practice.
If you're interested in making a difference to community arts by volunteering with the TCA board, we'd love to hear from you.
Please apply by email to info@tallaght-arts.ie and tell us all about your experience and what amazing talents you could bring to the team.
We're very excited to hear from you!
Cruinniú na nÓg 2026
Exploring Space! Visual Arts & Drama Workshops.
During the month of May, the students of St. Dominics NS are taking part in 4 weeks of visual arts and drama workshops in The Making Space, Mountain Park, Tallaght. Their work will go on display in the DoubleTAKE Studio in Rua Red during Cruinniú na nÓg, Saturday 6th June, from 11am - 1pm.
More to follow.
Act Up '26
Act Up Festival 2026 took place in Rua Red at the end of April.
Now in its 16th year, Act Up Festival supports second level students to stage their own one act play. The students, act, direct, tech and produce all aspects of their play. This year's participating schools were St. Aidan's Community School, St. Marks Community School, Firhouse Educate Together, Deansrath Community College, and Tallaght Community School. The 2026 Act Up Festival Adjudicator was actor, writer, and producer Liam Wilson Smyth.
The Big Doodle
This year's Creative Campus project, titled The Big Doodle, is an exploration by students from Holy Family Community School, Killinarden Community School and St. Mark's Community School of the urbanisation of Saggart and Rathcoole.
They discussed the meanings of the words 'Urban' and 'Rural' to them, and explored the local area on foot, sketching and noting down particularly historic or modern things that inspired them.
Then, using collage, paper and clay sculpture, and drawing, the students created their own miniature communities on top of ordinance survey maps of the area. They included all kinds of places, real and imagined, and landmarks that had meaning to them.
A showcase of their expansive sculptural communities was hosted in the Making Space on Tuesday 24th February.
The team of artists for Creative Campus 2026 was curator Débora Adachi alongside Graduate Artists Sarah Byrne and Rukmini Kelkar.
Creative Campus is an annual site-specific arts programme supporting emerging artists to create work that engages diverse audiences in South Dublin County. This initiative of Tallaght Community Arts is in partnership with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) Access Programme, South Dublin County Council Arts Office and Noise Dublin.
The programme supports graduate artists to gain valuable experience in working in the heart of communities and to develop the skills needed for such projects.
Samhain Sculptures
The Creative Places Mac Uíllíam crew were delighted to host an outdoor event recently to showcase the beautiful lanterns they created!
Samhain Sculptures took place on Thursday 30th October, from 5pm - 7pm at the Mural Wall in Mac Uíllíam Estate. It was an all ages event showcasing the work carried out by our Creative Places Mac Uíllíam participants during their Lantern Arts Camp in the days leading up to the event. Our thanks to everyone who braved the weather and came along to support, we hope you enjoyed the evening.
Café Visionaire
In late October, Doors to Elsewhere returned to the stage with "Café Visionaire."
Café Visionaire is an original, devised theatre show about the cast of Doors to Elsewhere and their talents, their dreams, and their experiences of work and pay. The sold-out show was staged in The Performance Space in Rua Red, where the amazing cast wowed the audience with a spectacle of song, dance and stories.
SPECTRUM
Creative Places Mac Uíllíam were delighted to collaborate with Noise Music South Dublin and Sofft Productions for "SPECTRUM" as part of Culture Night on Friday 19th September.
"SPECTRUM" was a high-energy takeover of Rua Red and Parthalán Place, celebrating fluidity, transformation, and the thrill of shared experience. The event blurred the lines between performer, audience, and environment in a constantly shifting landscape of sound, movement, and visual art.
Brighter Hues
The Creative Places Mac Uíllíam 2025 mural project entitled "Brighter Hues" is now complete!
Tallaght Community Arts and Creative Places Mac Uíllíam were delighted to work on this fantastic project alongside Creative Connections and the Mac Uíllíam community. The mural was officially unveiled at the Mac Uíllíam family day, which took place on Saturday 5th July 2025.
To the Power of 3
Our Shared Island collaborative project 'To the Power of 3' drew to a close this month in Derry/Londonderry.
‘To the Power of 3’ is led by TCA and is a creative exchange between young people in Derry/Londonderry, Dublin and Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.
Working alongside our project partners - Creative Places Mac Uíllíam, Creative Places Enniscorthy, and FUSE Arts - the participants assembled at a series of creative exchanges over the last five months, in the form of residential workshops and rehearsals in all three of the home locations of the three creative partners. This culminated in a series of three promenade performances in the grounds of St. Columb’s Park House and Gardens, Derry/Londonderry on Thursday 3rd July.
The Making Space Grand Re-Opening
We are finally there! The grand re-opening of The Making Space in Mountain Park took place on Wednesday 25th May.
There was an unveiling ceremony where Cllr. Alan Edge (SDCC) joined our Creative Director Sharon Devlin in cutting the ceremonial ribbon. He was accompanied by Trevor Kepell and Deirdre Cleary and their colleagues in SDCC, without whom the renovation would not have been possible. Also in attendance were TCA board members Genevieve Deering and Sarah Fitzgibbon, along with Maoliosa Boyle and the team from Rua Red.
We're very grateful to everyone who showed up to support the re-opening today, particularly our friends and neighbours in the local community who have been very patient with the noise and the clutter throughout the nine months of renovation work.
We’ll have more information to share very soon about our exciting plans for this amazing community facility. It will be a space for everyone! The Making Space will serve the local community by being a place to share, create, learn, grow and enjoy all kinds of fun activities and creative pursuits.
Act Up 2025
Huge congratulations to everyone who participated in Act Up Festival 2025. We are delighted with how the festival unfolded and, as always, in awe of the talent and dedication of the students in our local schools.
Now in its 15th year, Act Up Festival supports second level students to stage their own one act play. The students, act, direct, tech and produce all aspects of their play. This year's participating schools were Deansrath Community College, Tallaght Community School, St. Marks Community School, and Firhouse Educate Together. The 2025 Act Up Festival Adjudicator was writer and drama facilitator Seán Farrelly.
Spuddy Encounters
The Creative Campus project for 2025 entitled "Spuddy Encounters" culminated in a public showcase in The Making Space. Spuddy Encounters is a collaborative art project exploring food traditions and the act of eating together. In particular, it focused on examining and working with the potato, a versatile and humble vegetable that is a food staple in many cultures.
The team of artists for Creative Campus 2025 is curator Ala Buisir alongside Graduate Artists Steph Saidha and Mollie Donegan. They worked with fifth year students from Deansrath Community College, Clondalkin, and St. Aidan's Community School, Tallaght.
Creative Campus is an annual site-specific arts programme supporting emerging artists to create work that engages diverse audiences in South Dublin County. This initiative of Tallaght Community Arts is in partnership with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) Access Programme, South Dublin County Council Arts Office and Noise Dublin.
The programme supports graduate artists to gain valuable experience in working in the heart of communities and to develop the skills needed for such projects.
DoubleTAKE on tour!
DoubleTAKE Supported Arts Studio are delighted to say that our 2025 Tour is going brilliantly well! "We will not sit down and be quiet!" - our groundbreaking 2023 advocacy through the arts film and portrait installation - is currently on tour in Ireland.
The first leg of that tour took place in three campuses of TU Dublin throughout the month of March. The second leg was held in Rua Red Cafe, where the DoubleTAKE advocates' portraits and posters were displayed prominently throughout the month of April. After that it was onward to WALK advocacy group, who invited the advocates to their head office for a screening of the film. And then in May, a screening was held in Leinster House!
And this is just the beginning. Our amazing DoubleTAKE advocates are on a mission!
Who we are
TCA - South Dublin Participatory Arts (formerly Tallaght Community Arts) is a proactive arts development organisation working with local communities, schools and youth groups to activate arts programmes in line with the needs of the wider South Dublin community: geographically, culturally and socially.
TCA Core Programmes
Proud to be funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and South Dublin County Council