What Does He Need?
(2018 to present)

What Does He Need? is a long-term collaborative project led by Fiona Whelan (artist, writer, educator), Brokentalkers (theatre company) and Rialto Youth Project, in association with a network of individuals and organisations in the areas of arts and culture, youth work, community development and education. Established in 2018, What Does He Need? explores how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world they live in. Operating at the intersection of collaborative arts practice, performance, qualitative research and youth work, What Does He Need? aims to create significant public dialogue about masculinities today.

The project has employed multiple modes of engagement and production including creative workshops, public art works, philosophical conversations, performance and a long-term programme called Boys in the Making (led by Rialto Youth Project and Fiona Whelan), which has brought together many groups to co-create a boy character, exploring his needs and experiences as he interacts with the world around him.

Since 2020, a number of public manifestations have emerged from the project, presented in multiple public sites, community spaces and cultural venues including The LAB, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Project Arts Centre and the NCAD Gallery, Dublin. For further information on this project, see https://www.whatdoesheneed.com

What Does He Need? workshop materials. Fiona Whelan, Brokentalkers and Rialto Youth Project, IMMA, 2024.
What Does He Need? workshop. Drawing by Fiona Whelan, 2020.
What Does He Need? workshop, Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers, The LAB, 2019.
What Does He Need? public poster project, Fiona Whelan & Brokentalkers, 2022.
What Does He Need?, Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers, The LAB, 2020.
What Does He Need? public poster project, Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers, 2022. Photo by Louis Haugh.
What Does He Need? Fiona Whelan & Brokentalkers, IMMA, 2022. Photo by Louis Haugh.
What Does He Need? website. Drawings by Fiona Whelan, 2024.
Boys in the Making methodology event, F2 Neighbourhood Centre, 2021. Photo by Joseph Carr.
Boys in the Making methodology by Fiona Whelan, Dannielle McKenna, Jim Lawlor, Michael Byrne (with Ciaran Smyth). Drawings by Fiona Whelan, 2021.
Boys in the Making, Fiona Whelan, Rialto Youth Project & collaborators, NCAD Gallery, 2025. Photo by Evanna Devine.
Boys in the Making, Fiona Whelan, Rialto Youth Project & collaborators, NCAD Gallery, 2025. Photo by Evanna Devine.