Playing with Immersive Sensory Narratives to Expand Arts Access
This panel discussion explores the creation of Story Worlds, a four-part embodied journey of immersive sensory narratives for children and young people with profound and complex needs, aged 4 to 17 years.
The discussion considers the creation and impact of Story Worlds, created by lead artist Amélie Bal with mentor Phillida Eves. Story Worlds was created in schools for children with profound and complex needs over multi-week residencies. Through this conversation, project leaders explore how offering an entire sensory world creates expanded possibilities for how children and young people can access the arts. The discussion will consider how this project’s learning can benefit all young people, teachers, artists and communities.
Story Worlds was created as part of Creative Sensory Sessions, a multi-year arts-in-education project led by Baboró in Rosedale Special School, Galway and St. Teresa’s Special School, Ballinasloe. The project was funded by Rethink Ireland, and the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal Fund. Project activity began with a development pilot stage running from November 2024 into late Spring 2025, and the resulting immersive sensory narratives were completed and then rolled out across participating schools through to the end of 2026.
The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr Charlotte McIvor, lead evaluator of the Story Worlds project. Dr McIvor will be joined by artists Amélie Bal and Phillida Eves, as well as Paula Kelly, principal of Rosedale School, and Andrew Ormsby, Baboró's Schools Project Manager.
In partnership with and supported by:
Phillida Eves is a creative sensory artist, director and educator. She is the Artistic Director of Rosán Sensory Adventures, a collective of freelance artists trained by Phillida in inclusive theatre. She is passionate about giving children and young people, with intellectual disabilities and Autism, a voice in the creative process and agency in expressing themselves in the creative arts.
Phillida, and Rosán have developed, presented and toured inclusive sensory theatre installations and performances all over Ireland in special schools and venues, and Internationally to Lincoln Center, New York and Sydney Opera House.
Phillida is currently working as a mentor with Baboró on their exciting Story Worlds Project, creating and bringing immersive sensory narratives to special schools for children with complex needs.
Amelie Bal is a French Britton Circus Artist, Creative, Maker, and Educator based in Galway. With a practice deeply rooted in the body, she has given herself the life mission of connecting more than the dots.
Amelie performs using clown, improv, circus, acrobatics, and theatre to engage in the most intimate settings, from a hospital room with Aoife's Clown Doctors, to huge audiences such as the Honk Kong Chinese New Year parade with LUXe passing through the Lincoln Center and Sydney Opera House with Rosan's Antartica!.
As a freelance artist she is involved in a variety of projects that all invite the viewer to immerse their entire self into a rich sensory world of stories.
Dr Charlotte McIvor is Associate Professor and Head of Discipline in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Galway as well as one of the co-founders of Active* Consent, an Irish and international research-led consent education programme. She is collaborating with Bal and Eves on documenting and evaluating Story Worlds using practice-based research methods.
Her research focuses on theatre and performance for social change in Irish and international contexts with an emphasis on applied and community performance practices as well as practice-based methods. Recent key publications include the books Contemporary Irish Theatre: Histories and Theories (with Ian R. Walsh), Migration and Performance in Contemporary Ireland: Towards A New Interculturalism and The Methuen Companion to Interculturalism and Performance (edited with Daphne P. Lei).
This is the second time that she's partnered with Baboró on documenting and evaluating their arts-based research, having previously collaborated on Leap, Baboró's artist development scheme for underrepresented creatives.
Paula Kelly has been the principal of Rosedale school since 2025, and previously was a teacher to one of the classes participating in the Story Worlds project with Baboró. Paula has been a champion of creative activities in the school for many years, and has worked closely with Baboró and the artists in this project to make sure as many students as possible have the chance to participate in the sessions.
"When the Story Worlds project began in Rosedale, I was teaching a class of teenage autistic boys and girls. I was able to see first hand how Amélie and Phillida adapted their sessions to meet the needs of my students. For example, one of my students preferred to spend most of his time outdoors so the sensory session was held outside so that he could participate. When I became principal of Rosedale, I was in a position to see the energy and creativity that Baboró brought to our school as a whole. Even the most medically complex students engaged beautifully with the sessions and it was a joy to behold." - Paula Kelly
Andrew Ormsby first joined the Baboró team in 2024 as the Festival Team Coordinator, and in January 2025 returned to take up the role of Schools Project Manager. In this role Andrew manages Baboró's year-round schools outreach projects, and oversees the Schools Box Office during the festival period. Andrew has worked with Phillida Eves and Amélie Bal to coordinate the Story Worlds project activity since the beginning of 2025, managing relationships with partner schools and funders, and overseeing logistics for school visits.
Outside of Baboró, Andrew is involved in education and volunteer development. Since 2022, he has been a Board Member of EIL Intercultural Learning, an Irish charity providing intercultural learning opportunities through cultural immersion experiences. He has over a decade of experience volunteering at a national and international level in the educational sector, facilitating cultural education workshops for hundreds of exchange students each year, and training future volunteers in a variety of educational practices. He worked as an ESL and Spanish teacher before joining Baboró, and is passionate about bringing creative educational experiences to children and adults from all backgrounds in his work.
Venue | Mick Lally Theatre
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