JumpStart Resident 2026/27
JumpStart Resident 2026/27
Em Murphy
We are delighted to announce that Em Murphy has been selected as the artist for the 2026/27 edition of the JumpStart Residency.
WHAT IS JUMPSTART?
JumpStart is a nationwide two-year residency offering an artistic and sectoral mentoring programme for emerging aerial artists, who are members of the ISACS Network.
This residency is a joint initiative between Cairde Sligo Arts Festival, the ISACS Network, Earagail Arts Festival and Fidget Feet’s Irish Aerial Dance Festival, and is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
ABOUT EM
Em Murphy is an emerging multidisciplinary movement artist, creating atmospheric improvisation-based aerial dance work with audiovisual components. Specialising in harness dance, their practice centres dancing slowly and intuitively, focusing on presence, connection and expression. They are interested in experimental work and world-building which illuminates the darkness, both personally and politically. They are currently working on their first show, Ochón, which explores grief through Irish tradition and mythology.
Em will receive a stipend of €3,500 in year one to cover fees, travel, and per diem. The programme includes:
The programme includes:
Year 1: Go-see, training and mentoring
The artist will be invited to join the professional programme with international guests and arts workers at:
Cairde Sligo Arts Festival, 8-10 July 2026
Earagail Arts Festival, 11-13 July 2026
1 Week intensive aerial dance training at Irish Aerial Dance Festival, 13-18th July 2026
In addition, the artist will receive one week of mentoring at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre with Chantal McCormick (Monday 28 September – Friday 2 October). The artist will also receive support towards preparing funding applications for the creation of a new work.
Year 2: The partnering festivals will provide the selected artist with a platform to showcase a work in progress during Summer 2027. Ongoing mentoring and support towards their creation.
We look forward to working with Em and to seeing the progression of their artistic practice during the residency.
Em Murphy, JumpStart Resident 2026-27
“I am unbelievably honoured to have been selected for this amazing opportunity. I feel so grateful to receive this invaluable support to develop my creative practice and professionalism, and to work with this wonderful team of people over the next two years.
I will use this time and support to develop my first show, Ochón, which I’ve been making with collaborator Sadbh Grehan since Summer 2025, and which just had its first showing at Scene + Heard Festival of New Work in February 2026. Ochón is an experimental, multidisciplinary circus show exploring traditional and contemporary relationships to grief in Ireland, told through the Irish language, through the mediums of traditional, visual and circus (chairs, harness, acrobatics) arts. Ochón explores the lost ritual practice of keening in Ireland, and mythological concepts of the Irish Otherworld, in order to pose questions about the ways we carry grief and make meaning of loss today. I am so excited to develop Ochón to its full potential and to learn as much as I can in the process!
It is particularly meaningful for me to have this opportunity to represent people who grew up in poverty, who across the arts are underrepresented due to socioeconomic and cultural access barriers. Growing up in a disadvantaged council estate doesn’t just affect economic access to arts culture and education. Through social exclusion and stigma, it also erodes your sense of worth and your perceived potential for success. So, for me to be here feels groundbreaking, and I can’t thank the partnering organisations enough for helping to elevate underrepresented groups in the arts.”
-Em Murphy