Hands-On Heritage Festival

Benchspace Cork is delighted to host its first Heritage Week event. The Hands-On Heritage Festival is a special programme of classes focused on learning heritage craft techniques using hand tools.

Running from Saturday 15 August to Saturday 29 August, the festival offers a selection of traditional craft activities delivered in 3-hour sessions. See the Benchspace website for the full programme.

The festival offers hands-on, accessible craft sessions in our creative hub, led by skilled practitioners. Classes will span a variety of traditional disciplines and materials, including woodworking, fine metalwork, textiles, stonework, willow weaving, printing and leatherwork.

Material culture is an intrinsic part of Ireland’s cultural heritage and a powerful expression of our cultural and national identity. Heritage crafts anchor people to Irish culture through their tools and techniques. Craft objects become the bridge between intangible and tangible heritage.

Many heritage crafts are at risk due to the difficulty of sustaining the specialist skills, materials and livelihoods associated with them. Furthermore, the official recognition and protections needed to preserve these handicrafts as cultural heritage are often missing.

Hands-On Heritage aligns closely with the Heritage Week 2026 theme ‘Heritage at Risk’ by putting natural materials and “low-tech” tools and techniques front and centre. In this time of accelerating transformation, we’re excited to bring our community together to celebrate Irish crafts.

Benchspace Cork is a creative hub with studio spaces and shared professional workshops for makers, designers and artists. Our mission is to make creative livelihoods possible.