
Art Exhibitions
30 July - 5 August | 1pm-6pm
MIGRATION
The Courthouse Yard
Curated by Marta Yanik (Poland)
The history of the world is the history of migration; and this is a phenomenon which increasingly affects each of us, in almost every corner of the Earth. People migrate for many reasons, some in search of peace and security, and others to earn more money and live better lives.
Twin exhibitions in both Ireland and Poland have brought together collage artists from different countries and cultures, asking them to approach the topic of “migration” and reflect on it through their artistic practice.
Lou Beach USA | Una Gildea Ireland
Silvio Severino Brazil | Steve Tierney Australia Maryna Siliakova Ukraine | Maria Filek Poland Tanja Ulbrich Canada/Spain | Yulia Farenyuk Ukraine | Denis Kollasch Germany | Domenico Goi Italy | Jerome Bertrand Canada Maria Filek Poland | Sherry Parker USA/Mexico | Anthony D Kelly Ireland | Marta Janik Poland


THE ART WALL
The Courthouse Yard
Yuliia Farenyuk aka xлоя is a young Ukrainian artist and is part of the Kyiv Collage Collective and will be working alongside other visiting collage artists to help create the interactive Art Wall that will grow throughout the week. Pop in and add your voice through workshops and drop-in sessions facilitated by Yuliia and the other visiting artists. Since the war started in Ukraine, she found shelter in Ireland where she is currently based with her family.
Community Flag Project
The Courthouse Yard
A series of colourful flags based on elements taken from the Macregol Gospels combined with images representing different aspects of the town identified by the people of Birr and translated by Naomi McArdle.


PLANT-TASTIC: INSPIRED BY NATURE
The Courthouse Yard
London-based, Italian artist Cristina Ottonello in collaboration with young people on the Ashbrooke, Chesterfield Close and McAuley estates in Birr have created an art installation through crafting processes, and includes reusable and repurposed materials, that explores and highlights local plants and their usefulness and how these plants have and can inspire innovation and creativity, such as the Sundew Drosera rotundifolia and Bladderwort Utricularia vulgaris.
The resulting installation will not be botanical replicas of the original plants but an interpretation of how to frame the ordinary into the extraordinary.
This is a Birr Theatre & Arts Centre project supported by the Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with Offaly Local Development Company, curated by Ann Lawlor.
J.J. Kinahan - World-Record Breaking Cycling Legend
The Courthouse Yard
A Cruinniú na nÓg project by Clareen National School with Yvonne Claffey celebrating the World Record Breaking cyclist J.J. Kinahan. Download the Artivive app to see the artworks come to life.

Birr Art Group
St Brendan's Hall
With around 17 members, Birr Art Group has been working together for many years under the guidance of Kathleen Gormley. Their new meeting place is St Brendan’s Market where they are exhibiting this year.
POTTIER by Laura Angell
Masonic Hall
A Galway-based artist, originally from Sheffield, Laura’s work marries issues of status, modern femininity and feminism with contemporary global themes and distractions. Building on her previous work Potty, an installation which explored success and the need for approval and love in a digital world, Pottier asks how much of that is truly in the grasp of our own control? In
this evolution of those themes, we are invited into the artist striving to control anxiety by calling forth all the charms, portents and omens wrapping them in luxe finishes and realising them using knitting, crochet and Bargello work.


PAPERCUTS by Paul Bokslag
Masonic Hall
Paul Bokslag is a visual artist and designer from the Netherlands, based in County Kilkenny. He has completed murals, large scale papercut installations, room-filling tape drawings and twine sculptures spanning multiple floors in numerous high-profile locations nationwide. This papercut installation takes its inspiration from the Japanese concepts of Shinrin Yoku (being refreshed and invigorated by taking in the forest atmosphere through our senses) and Komorebi (the effect of sunlight streaming through layers of leaves).
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT
Tin Jug Studio
A collaborative exhibition of small works of text and images from visual artists, poets and story writers

THE LISTENING HAND
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre
Bridget Flannery
Pat Fitzpatrick
Jock Nichol
Rosemarie Langtry
“You wish to see; listen”
(St. Bernard of Ciairvaux, 12th Century).
This exhibition brings together the work of these four artists who take their inspiration from experiencing the landscape through different media. Every seemingly instantaneous mark or surface is underpinned by years of looking, listening, reflecting and making, to see beyond the outward appearance and allowing the natural World to speak through their work.
Annual Open Submission Exhibition
Oxmantown National School
Curated by Julie Spollen
We are thrilled to leave the online world and host this exhibition in the lovely Oxmantown National School Hall. Julie holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and works in community and care settings in Offaly. She is an advocate for arts that nourish society focusing specifically on artistic interactions working with older participants.

PORTALS by Tina Claffey
Copper Tree Gallery, Birr Castle
Tina has a unique perspective of the flora and
fauna of the unspoilt raised bogs and wet woodlands of the Irish midlands. Bogs are magical places that defy any distinction between land and water. They are the last true wildernesses in Western Europe and are home to extraordinary plant and animal species that have adapted in this unique environment to survive. This exhibition of macro photographs is taken from Tina’s new book Portals.
This exhibition will be officially opened on Monday 1 August 6pm. All welcome!
BETWEEN THE SIGHTS
AND THE SEA
Birr Technology Centre | Enterprise Units
Curated by Maeve Mulrennan
20 works from across Ireland, inspired by Seamus Heaney’s celebrated poem Bogland. His poem considers the bog’s ability to preserve and hide and identity and creativity to our relationship with our boglands. In 2022, our boglands are a site of conflict, building on centuries of conflict preserved in the peat- like chrysalises. Maeve is a Visual Arts Curator and is Assistant Arts Officer with Cork County Council.


ARTISTS AT WORK
Birr Technology Centre | Enterprise Units
Visit the pop-up studio throughout the week.
John Gillen is the recipient of the Pauline Bewick Bursary. He works in watercolours and has an established client base for his detailed work.
Eamonn Byrne’s main focus is portraiture, working in oils and acrylic.
Katerina Hayden enjoys creating a story through her paintings in both watercolour and acrylic and has exhibited extensively.
Birr Creatives “Teatime”
Birr Technology Centre | Enterprise Units
An assortment of crafts on display by the newly formed Birr Creatives, using needlework, fabric and papercrafts, mosaic, glass, paints, loom work etc. The Group meet in the library every Wednesday at 6.30pm. Birr Creatives brings together those who enjoy using their skills to design/make objects, beautiful, useful or both!
Local Artists
Birr Technology Centre | Enterprise Units
Sorrel Lambton, Aneta Komendera, Emma Mulrooney, Frank Gallagher, Wiltrud Dull.

Generation
Birr Technology Centre | Enterprise Units
An exhibition of Graduates of LSAD from the past two years with connections to the Midlands. Finn Nichol was awarded the RDS Taylor Art Award in 2021, presented to the most promising arts graduate in the country and this group includes artists longlisted for these prestigious awards. Day Magee is a performance- centred multimedia artist based in Dublin. Since 2011, they have performed as part of live-art organisations such as Livestock and the Dublin Live Art Festival. They will present a performance on Saturday 30 July at 1pm at Birr Technology Centre.
Emma Behan
Day Magee
Finn Nichol
Maeve Beouf Smith
Ellen Rose Wallace
Adele Passas
Francesca Hutchinson