Carlow Arts Festival is an annual multi-disciplinary arts festival which takes place each June. Jo Mangan served as the director and programmer for the festival 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. During this time the festival became a strategically funded client of the Art Council. She built massive audiences through a free programme including a focus on outdoor spectacle.

She created a Digital platform for work as part of her tenure, commissioning brand new work in this realm. A personal highlight of her work was securing the extraordinary Max Richter’s Sleep for an outdoor overnight performance. Other noteworthy elements in the digital realm included VR Cinema, the commission Shelter and Place and a VR Festival Campus with live interactive audio-visual installations and a talk series hosted in Alt Space for the semi-locked down 2021 Festival.

She also initiated the Wedge Funds during this period to help support development ideas for artists cut off from their practice.

The large scale project Woman in the Machine at the Braun factory was commissioned and created by Jo in collaboration with Emma Lucy O’Brien of VISUAL.

Brightening Air

Digital Programmer 2021

LP360 (Live Performance 360) Vancouver

Curator 2021

An Arts Council of Ireland initiative delivered by Schweppe and Nunn in 2021, Jo led on the curation of the Digital programme which included the following works that encompassed Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Film and Installation.

Pan Pan Theatre's Mespil in the Dark, Bru Theatre Ar Air Arís, Ballad of a Care Centre, No Matter Here, The Cornor of Scotsmans Bay, Waterford Walls, A City and a Garden.

Co-Curator for Immersive Performance Series in Vancouver Canada in 2020 Live Performance 360.