Fernanda Ferrari
Director
Fernanda Ferrari is an award-winning visual storyteller, performer, puppeteer, and filmmaker with over 25 years of experience. She holds a Bachelor’s in Art Performance from UNICAMP, Brazil, and has led cultural projects across Brazil, France, and the UK, using the arts to foster inclusion, well-being, and climate awareness. In Ireland, she has received awards from the Arts Council Ireland, South Dublin County Council, and The Civic Theatre to create innovative works for young audiences. Since 2021, she has collaborated with Mother Tongues and now, as Director, continues to champion diversity, creativity, and social transformation through the arts.
Elena Cristofanon
Manager
Elena Cristofanon is an Italian creative with a growing passion for projects and people management. She has been behind the scenes of Mother Tongues Festival since its first edition, in 2018. With an academic background in Art History and Standards for Education in Museums, she continued her studies in Ireland in the area of Marketing, Management and Web Design. In 2021, she was awarded the Arts Council’s Agility Award to expand the Contatto project on a national scale.
Tony Fegan
Producer
Dublin-born Tony Fegan is a creative producer, theatre director and participatory arts practitioner. Tony established Lift Learning Programme at Lift (London International Festival of Theatre).
As Director of Learning (1992 – 2007), Tony developed a wide-ranging and highly influential learning programme with national and international artists working with youth, community groups, schools and universities on long-term artist collaborations, including site-specific events. The programme supported the advancement of a culturally diverse arts curriculum in UK schools and developed the profile of contemporary arts practice within the wider community, nationally and internationally.
He is a founder member of Project Phakama, an inter-cultural youth arts exchange programme between London, Southern Africa, India and South America. He was a visiting artist in residence at the Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre Summer School, Ireland in 2002.
He has extensive experience in creating multilingual performances through artist-in-residence projects in intercultural and international settings. Tony was CEO/Director at Tallaght Community Arts in Dublin from 2007 – 2023. Tony repositioned Tallaght Community Arts as an arts development organisation working closely with communities in
Tallaght, across South Dublin County and internationally.
In 2021, Tony spearheading a local resident /arts consortium, was awarded an Arts Council of Ireland Creative Places R&D award. In 2022, the consortium was awarded the Arts Council of Ireland Creative
Places 3-year award.
Lacie Raymond
Outreach officer
Lacie is an educator, researcher and programme coordinator with a background in language teaching and experiential learning. She originally came to Mother Tongues as a parent interested in supporting her family’s multicultural identity in Ireland. Prior to collaborating with the organisation in a more formal capacity, Lacie gained professional and personal experience with community-based initiatives that valorise cultural diversity and promote cross-cultural dialogue. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Intercultural Studies and has worked across various cultural contexts in Europe, the Middle East and North America.
