President’s Welcome

On behalf of the Institute of Technology Sligo, I would like to welcome you all to this year’s edition of our Yearbook celebrating the 2020 Creative Showcase. This is one of the highlights of the many events that take place during our annual academic calendar.

This year, working in the backdrop of the pandemic provides the opportunity for us to issue an online Yearbook and while there will not be a physical show, the Yearbook goes a long way to present the work of our YAADA students over the 2019-21 academic year. The pandemic has also meant that everyone is, in one way or another, re-evaluating their lives; I don’t believe that anyone could claim to be totally isolated from the impact and consequences of Covid19 on lives, on society and on the way we live and work. It affects us in ‘big’ everyday ways such as restricted travel, remote working, online conversations, and in ‘little’ everyday ways such as no physical contact, no social interactions and living in close proximity with family members. Certainly, for me, this has changed the way I think about life and others and I look forward very much to see and hear what the creative sector learns from these experiences and how they express their experiences in their works.

The establishment last year of the Yeats Academy of Arts, Design & Architecture, within the Faculty of Engineering and Design, has given the staff and students a strong sense of identity and common sense of purpose, albeit expressed in different ways. Now more than ever we need people who can conceptualise and visualise what is going on in our lives and in the wider society. I would like to thank all of the contributors to the Yearbook and to acknowledge the work of academic and technical staff who supported the students in the creation of their work.