Niamh Shaw
Science Communicator
Niamh Shaw has been creating events to promote STEM to the general public since 2013. In 2014 she was appointed as Blackrock Castle Observatory’s Artist in Residence and has been working closely with them for over 5 years sharing her passion to ignite people’s curiosity by combining creativity with science topics. She presents the human story of science, creating theatre shows, public events and contributions to media with this focus. She has set herself a life’s mission to get to space, as artist and explorer and shares her activities (a zero gravity flight, launches & landings of astronaut crews & over 20 EVA hrs as analogue astronaut at simulated Mars missions) to her public talks to families and schools. She hopes that by sharing the human story behind such a venture, it will help us better understand our place in the story of space, and the beauty of our planet. She recently appeared on RTE’s ‘The Late Late Show’ and The Tommy Tiernan Show to speak about her experiences and desire to inspire and extend international partnerships in communicating future global STEM and space themes. Niamh is a regular contributor to prime time national TV and radio, national and local media and has a strong online presence: Twitter (7282 followers), Instagram (2248 followers), LinkedIn , YouTube channel and Facebook page Get Niamh To Space (675 followers). She recently published her first book, Dream Big from Mercier Press.
STEAM Theatre Projects: Niamh has been merging science and theatre since 2011 with three shows exploring this middle ground. Her theatre work has toured internationally including Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Australia and has been supported by the European Space Agency (ESTEC, EAC), Science Foundation Ireland, ESERO Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland, Arts@CERN, Culture Ireland, Dublin Fringe, Dublin City Council. She is an alumnus of MAKE (2011), The SPACE Programme (2011), The Festival of Curiosity Residency (2013), and The Robert Wilson Watermill International Spring Residency, New York (2010).
In 2014 the SFI Discover project created, in partnership with Blackrock Castle Observatory and ESERO Ireland, a theatre show about space, entitled ToSpace which premiered at Dublin Fringe, and subsequently toured internationally from 2014-16, supported by Culture Ireland, ESA and the Arts Council of Ireland.
DIARY OF A MARTIAN BEEKEEPER THEATRE REVIEWS 2017-2018
In 2017 A Hand in Space SFI Discover project awarded in partnership with CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory and ESERO Ireland provided her the time to create a new theatre piece ‘Diary of a Martian Beekeeper’, working closely with ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne and presented at Space week in 2017 and Engineers Week 2018. The work was supported by Culture Ireland’s GB18 scheme tour the show to Royal Albert Hall, Blue Dot Festival and Edinburgh Fringe 2018. Sadly, due to a change in the personal circumstances of the producer and technical issues this tour did not occur but Culture Ireland continue to support her work. Very high levels of bookings for the full run of the Smock Alley Theatre were obtained with average audience capacity of 80%. 65% is the normal capacity for theatre in general. This project, the work in STEAM and its contribution to STEM in society was acknowledged by President Higgins at a special St Patricks Day reception in 2017. Funding support of €20,000 was obtained from Culture Ireland for a UK tour in 2018 as part of their GB18 showcase of arts events to promote Ireland in the UK.
SCIENCE WEEK IRELAND EVENTS: Niamh has been contributing to Science week since 2014, with Art in Mind series, Baking in Space, The Irish Astronauts of 1991 and My Place in Space, collaborating with other centres such as ESERO Ireland, CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, British Council, Festival of Curiosity, The Ark Children’s Cultural Centre, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Science Gallery. She has presented workshops (created under the SFI Discover programme To Space) nationwide across primary schools and STEM festivals and in the UK at Cheltenham Science Festival, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Northern Ireland Science Festival and the World Science Festival.
ABOUT BAKING IN SPACE:
BBC’s Great British Bake-off finalist. Andrew Smyth came to Dublin and shared his expertise in combining baking with aerospace engineering. As part of the show, the audience got involved by participating in taste tests, and being allowed to approach the stage to taste all food created on the night. The combination of science, fun and baking worked perfectly, and audiences learned a lot on the night- they heard about Romain Charles from the astronaut
centre, who assists ESA astronauts in planning their special food items. He also shared his views about the importance of food in space, which connected very well with Andrews live demonstrations. EIRSAT-1 joined the event and explained their project with the audience, using a to scale model of the CubeSat made as a cake. The cake made the science behind the design of the satellite more accessible to the audience. The atmosphere of the event
was fun and interactive, and this was due to the great chemistry between Niamh Shaw and Andrew Smyth, co-hosts and creators of this event.
ABOUT IRISH ASTRONAUTS OF 1991:
The four astronaut candidates for final selection to ESA’s programme of 1991 were re-united on stage for the very first time in 27 years. They shared their story which was deeply human and engaging. The event was free and attracted a diverse audience in terms of age, gender and background. Capacity of the auditorium was 400 and 387 tickets were booked for the event. The event also highlighted a story that had been forgotten and was an opportunity to
highlight the varied careers available in the space sector. The event also highlighted ESERO Ireland and the important work it is doing in highlighting the use of space for STEM learning
SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR EDUCATOR:
As artist & communicator, she has collaborated with European Space Agency, British Council, EPIC Irish Emigration Museum, Arts@CERN, RTE, The Lottie Doll Company, ESERO Ireland, UCD, The Ark Children’s Centre, SFI and more. Niamh has spoken internationally at WIRED Live, Space Rocks (ESA), NASA Johnson Centre, Inspirefest, New Scientist, and London’s Science Museum. She writes for BBC’s Sky at Night and keeps bees
with her father.
She is consultant on The Day We Landed on The Moon, a one-off live event for RTE in partnership with Indiepics, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landings, to be aired on July 20th. Her new 6 x30 minute family radio series about the world around us Curious Humans funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland will be aired on Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE Radio 1 in late 2019. Her first book, Destined for Space, a science and personal memoir about her quest to get to space is due to for publication by Mercier Press next Spring. She is a member of the 2019 STEAM Advisory Group, convened to assist the DES STEM Implementation Group, the Horizon 2020 HATCH Expert Advisory Board, and EuroPlanet Society’s Outreach Working Group. Since 2016, she has provided Space Humanities activities at ISU’s Space Studies Programme.
She facilitates improvisation and theatre skills workshops with academics, universities and research centres across Europe in effective communication as part of Connect2Communicate, funded under the SFI Discover Programme in 2017. Partnering with CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, ESERO Ireland and Lottie Dolls, Niamh has delivered more than 20 ‘Drama & Dreams Inspired by Space’ STEAM workshop for 8-year-old girls. Using drama and improvisation, the participants learn about the scale of the Universe and in partnership with Stargazer Lottie doll, explore their future selves. She has worked on a pilot project with An Cosán’s Rainbow House child care facility, bringing STEM to 2-3year olds using puppets and Skype.