InHand Forum 2026 is a four-day immersive heritage craft event to be held at Greenan Farm Museums & maze, County Wicklow from 17th-21st September 2026. The project will bring together professional makers, heritage practitioners, artists, learners and local audiences for a programme of hands-on workshops, public talks, live demonstrations and shared experimentation. We will focus on endangered manual skills, both traditional heritage skills and “heritage skills of the future” and their value in contemporary life.

Tutors and invited experts will be on site for 4 days with the opportunity to begin their own experiments, collaborations and project-planning in advance of the public’s arrival. Retaining the three-day format of 2025 for attendees, participants will enroll in a formatted two-day workshop in the craft of their choice. On their third day, participants can deepen their skills in that discipline, explore a different medium, or simply observe the wide range of classes, take part in field trials, and enjoy the idyllic setting of Greenan biodiversity farm, maze and museums and all its attractions.

This year national and international experts in blacksmithing, silversmithing, bronze-casting, stone-carving and iron-smelting will return to the Wicklow hills accompanied by a new cohort of tutors in skills such as willow weaving and water conservation. Returning participants will have the opportunity to complement their skills from InHand 2025 with follow-up courses such as knife-handle carving, forge-building and stone wall pointing.

InHand places emphasis on the therapeutic value of engaged manual work. As an antidote to excessive screen time and AI risks we are developing the “Heritage Skills of the Future” programme. This initiative explores how traditional heritage skills can be applied in a contemporary context, giving the practitioner a greater sense of agency and control, while also looking at the manual skills of today that will inevitably become the heritage skills of tomorrow.

See www.inhandforum.ie for more info and to book tickets or email inhandforum@gmail.com