Our team
Art to Heart’s team is small but strong. Each one of us performs many functions, some mighty and some very humble. We dream up a lot of ideas and discuss the best over lunch. We turn them into projects which you find on this site. We love what we do.
Here we are, ladies first.
Jole Bortoli
Jole is the director and founder of Art to Heart. She has extensive experience in working with children and with adults who work with children through the arts.
Jole has led pioneering visual art workshops in The Ark, a cultural centre for children, and she has art-directed the interior design of children-centred spaces such as the A&E Department in Temple Street Children's Hospital and the Office for the Ombudsman for Children.
Jole is currently working in Dublin and the Burren, Co. Clare and every week she leads workshops for children and adults.
In Dublin she regularly works with the Ark as artist-facilitator in visual art programmes and also with the Sanctuary, a spirituality Centre in the heart of Dublin city, where she is a facilitator in their Youth Programme.
From 2006 to 2009 she was the artist in residence in Larkin Community College as part of the Learning Through Arts Programme.
In the Burren, Co. Clare she runs workshops every fortnight and every summer she holds several weeks of training in her workshop.
In the last couple of years Jole has started to illustrate and write her own stories, which she self-publishes. Her first book “Iria” was launched in April 2010 and she’s now working on her second.
Jole is a board member of Public Communications Centre, a strategic marketing, campaigning and fundraising agency for non-profit organizations and causes.
Paola Mezzaroma
Paola joined Art to Heart in 2009 and looks after the organization’s Media and Communications. She has a background in Media Studies and Journalism and in 2010 she completed a Master degree in Multimedia Technologies at Dublin Institute of Technology.
Paola has worked with Jole on a diverse range of projects for clients like The Ark, Larkin Community College, Community After Schools Project and RehabCare.
She is responsible for the development of creative communication strategies and always looking for new ways to improve Art to Heart's visibility both online and offline.
Paola is also in charge of capturing and editing multimedia content (photography, audio and video) to document Art to Heart's work and she is the webmaster of this site.
Her dream is to be able, one day, to bring to life Jole's book "Iria" through animation.
John Sutton
John is Art to Heart’s guardian angel. He advises, counsels, gently directs and most of all, does the numbers.
He is regarded as one of Ireland’s leading experts in strategic communications and campaigning for non-profit organisations. In recent years he has worked extensively on projects for IMPACT Trade Union, Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Our Lady's Hospice Harold's Cross and Blackrock, Crumlin Medical Research Foundation, The Arts Council/Temple Bar Cultural Trust, the Irish Cancer Society and Christian Aid.
He has led seminars and workshops in communications and provided training in advocacy and fundraising.
John has also worked extensively in the cultural sector.He was a founding member and managing director of The Passion Machine theatre company, King Farouk publishing, the SFX Centre and Amnesty Education (publishing arm of Amnesty Ireland). He also represents the writer Roddy Doyle and artist Jole Bortoli.
John is a member of the board of Public Communications Centre, Fighting Words, Art to Heart, Amnesty Education and Report. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of TASC, a think tank for social change.
