Sophie von Maltzan

Sophie von Maltzan is a German and Irish artist, landscape architect, gardener, academic and environmentalist, known for her work in socially engaged environmental, collaborative projects to improve the public realm in urban settings, primarily in Ireland.

She trained as an artist at the Charles H. Cecil Studios, and as a gardener at the Galabau, Hamburg, and pursued undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and at the Ecole nationale superieure de Versailles.

[13][10][14] In 2010 and 2011, she managed a project to study potential reuse of the spaces left in Ballymun after the high tower blocks were removed, involving her UCD students and local schoolchildren.

[15] In 2012, she set up a project to produce garden areas for three inner city schools in Dublin, later the subject of an exhibition at DARC Space on North Great George's Street.

The result of the research can be seen on the project specific website: https://www.stannespocketpark.com/ In 2017 she worked on plans for improved play facilities on York Street in central Dublin.

[20] In 2020, she was appointed as one of three artists under a community arts project of Dublin City University, and worked with public input and local schoolchildren to form a "micro pocket park" in the grounds of the former All Hallows College.

[21][22] In 2016, the Phibsboro Tidy Towns committee asked von Maltzan's practice to assist with a memorial concept, and after discussion with the Croke Park Community Fund, four ideas for local arts projects, that von Maltzan developed with the UCD students were shortlisted, the first to proceed being the Great Willow Weave.

[24] The sculptures were dismantled or disposed of some weeks later, with the last, in the form of a submarine, walked through the streets of Dublin to a new location at Canal Way national school.

[28][e] She won two silver-gilt medals at the Bloom festival in 2011, for the design of the garden at the Steam Museum, Straffan, and for the concept green space, "An Outdoor Gallery", which inspired part of the later Smithfield Art Tunnel project.