Réalta presents Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026 at The Dock. The annual national gathering of the arts and health sector in Ireland, Arts + Health: Check Up Check will take place on Thursday 30 April and will feature a keynote address by artist, author, and educator Karrie Marshall, in addition to presentations by some of the most exciting, innovative, and creative practitioners working in arts and health in Ireland today.
For her keynote address, Karrie Marshall will draw on her experience working at the intersection of arts, health, and social care, and her decades of practice in socially-engaged arts, healthcare, adult education, and supporting individuals, staff, and leaders under pressure. Karrie’s work explores how creativity with compassion can measurably improve wellbeing and quality of life. The work of the arts-based company she founded, Creativity in Care (CIC), in dementia care, mental health, family support, and community settings, is recognised as best practice by the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing.
Arts + Health: Check Up Check In also provides an opportunity for participants to come together to share their experiences, exchange ideas, and support and inspire each other in their practice through a range of themed presentations and workshops, with additional opportunities for networking throughout the day. Announcing details of Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026, Claire Meaney, Director of Réalta, said:
"We are thrilled to bring Check Up Check In to The Dock Arts Centre in beautiful Carrick-on-Shannon this year. Our aim with this packed day is for participants to feel revived, encouraged, supported and motivated at the end of the day, and to have lots of new contacts! We’ll be sharing our full programme in early April, but in the meantime, tickets should be booked early, as we fill up quickly every year. We are most grateful to our event partner, the Arts Office of Leitrim County Council and to our funders the Arts Council and the HSE for their ongoing tremendous support of Check Up Check In."
Réalta is the national resource organisation dedicated to developing arts + health in Ireland. Through its national programme, Réalta delivers training; provides information, mentoring and advice; supports networking; engages with the HSE and other policy makers to increase understanding and support for arts + health; and provides the national information hub artsandhealth.ie.
At local level, Réalta delivers its extensive Waterford Healing Arts programmes, which bring arts experiences – music, visual art, creative writing, storytelling – to patients at University Hospital Waterford (UHW) and other healthcare settings to promote creativity, connection and discovery, and reduce isolation, anxiety and stress for patients, family members and staff. The Waterford Healing Arts programmes also provide rich examples of good practice, and opportunities to research, pilot and evaluate new ideas, all of which informs Réalta’s national work. Réalta is core funded by the Arts Council and the HSE.
Arts + Health: Check Up Check In 2026 is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE, with additional support from Leitrim Arts Office.