Published 13.10.2026
by Kids’ Own
by Kids’ Own
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A children's arts organisation and publishing house.
Kids’ Own will contribute to Shaping Tomorrow Together, a conference for early years professionals taking place at Atlantic Technological University Sligo on Saturday 17 October. Hosted by Sligo, Roscommon, Donegal and Mayo County Childcare Committees, the conference will explore how the National Síolta Aistear Initiative (NSAI) framework can support quality and inclusion across early learning and childcare.
Through a presentation, a hands-on workshop and an artwork informed by listening to children and practitioners, Kids’ Own will share insights from its work in early years settings. Each offers a different perspective on the role of artists, materials, observation and listening in creative practice with young children.
‘A Form of Listening’: Insights from Kids’ Own projects
Presenter: Jo Holmwood, Former Creative Director, Kids’ Own
In A Form of Listening, Jo Holmwood will share findings and insights from Kids’ Own’s work in early learning and childcare settings over several years, supported by dedicated funding from the Arts Council of Ireland.
The presentation will explore the value of slowing down, listening, observing and responding to children, and creating opportunities for open-ended engagement with high-quality materials led by professional artists. It will consider what can emerge when adults make space for children’s ideas, expressions and ways of exploring the world.
Jo has worked with Kids’ Own for many years as a project manager and later as Creative Director and CEO. She is currently a Creative Advisor to the organisation.
‘Material Invitations’: A workshop with visual artists Maree Hensey and Naomi Draper.
Material Invitations invites participants to spend time exploring carefully selected materials without instructions or a prescribed outcome. Through curiosity, play and close observation, participants can discover their own ways of engaging, moving freely between moments of exploration, immersion and quiet reflection.
The workshop offers an opportunity to consider how this kind of open-ended encounter might inform practice with young children. By looking closely, listening and allowing time for discovery, participants can reflect on how materials and the ways they are presented can invite children to explore on their own terms.
Maree Hensey and Naomi Draper have collaborated on early years projects since 2012, developing a shared approach informed by their practices as visual artists. Their work centres on slowing down, curiosity, observation and the possibilities that emerge when children are free to accept, adapt or decline an invitation to explore.
‘We Just Sort of Flow’: An artwork by Bryonie Reid
Artist and writer: Bryonie Reid
We Just Sort of Flow is an artwork developed through listening to artists, childcare practitioners and children in early years settings. Artist-researcher Bryonie Reid presents the words she has heard as drawings, creating a conversation that takes up space and invites people to move through it and spend time with it.
The work also makes room for silence and for the ways children communicate beyond words, through gesture, expression and touch. Materials used in the settings appear within these gaps, offering another way into the conversation.
Bryonie Reid is a writer and artist whose work explores identity, memory, belonging and place on the island of Ireland. She also works with her sister Gemma as quarto collective, exploring place and the past with communities and organisations across Northern Ireland. As a Kids’ Own Associate Artist, Bryonie has carried out reflective research in arts education across secondary, primary and early years settings.
Commissioned by Kids’ Own and funded through the Arts Council of Ireland’s Arts in Early Years Scheme 2025/26, We Just Sort of Flow reflects Kids’ Own’s ongoing interest in listening to children and practitioners and finding creative ways to make their experiences visible.
More from the conference
Shaping Tomorrow Together takes place on Saturday 17 October, at Atlantic Technological University Sligo.
We’ll share more next week about the conference, the conversations that took place and what we learned from the day.