Dr Anita McKeown

Anita McKeown (FRSA) is co-director of SMARTlab Skelligs, S.Kerry and an award-winning artist / curator, driven by curiosity, guided and motivated by getting it right rather than being right. She works at the intersection of art, equitable spatial planning / placemaking and technology; Open Source Culture and Technology (ethical and ecological implications) and STEAM education, across a range of interdisciplinary projects, processes and partnerships. Her PhD - Cultivating permaCutural resilience: Towards a Creative Placemaking Critical Praxis was completed at the National College of Art and Design, SMARTlab UCD

Her work has been recognised by the Women’s Economic Forum with a Women’s Impact award for arts-led community development and education, with recent research, CoDesRes.ie (EPA-funded, 2018-20) selected by the Royal Irish Academy Climate and Environmental Science committee, for scaling Irish research impact on co-design and sustainability. She is a Member of UCD’s Earth Institute, the Placemaking Leadership Council and an Advocate within Placemaking X.

She was invited to the Cultural Adaptations embedded artist project (2020), the inaugural artist in residence with the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument (2013) and is the only non-US national to win a Bravo award, for the audio-visual sensor project, Memphis 45s (2004). With over 110 exhibitions and performative projects to date, she continues to present her work locally, nationally, and internationally.