Visual Arts
Visual Arts Trail Launch
The Old Cinema | Fri 31 Jul | 7.30pm
Join us for the Official Launch of the Visual Arts Trail with Offaly Arts Officer Maeve Mulrennan. The launch will take place in the festival’s main arts venue, The Old Cinema, where audiences can gather to celebrate the opening of this year’s programme.
During the evening, curator Owen de Forge will announce the winner of the 2027 Solo Show Award.
Late Night Art Walks
Starts from the Old Cinema | Mon 3, Wed 5 Aug | 8.30pm
The Late Night Art Walk is an experience not to be missed! More than just a stroll through the exhibits, this unique nighttime adventure transforms the Arts Trail into a world of surprise, spectacle and discovery.
Expect pop-up performances, interactive moments and unexpected encounters as artists and performers bring the trail to life after dark. Specially illuminated sculptures and installations will create a magical atmosphere, offering a completely new way to experience the artwork. With different pop-ups and performances featured, each walk will be different.
Breakfast Art Talk With Carol O'Neill
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre Fri 31 Jul | 10.30–11.30am
Witches in Art
From the grotesque to the enchanting, witches have been inspiring artists for LATE NIGHT ART WALKS centuries. Join us for a spellbinding journey through art in this multimedia talk.
From Goya’s dark and haunting witch masterpieces to the bold reimagining of the witch narrative by the women surrealist artists. This talk celebrates a myriad of artists who dared to paint witchcraft, power and rebellion. There may even be chocolate and pastries. There will be magic.
Tickets: €10 (+booking fee).
Open Submission 2026
The Old CinemaHere & NowSmall Squares, Big PresenceCurated by Owen de ForgeThis year’s Open Call invites artists to explore thetheme of Presence in works created within a 30 × 30cm format.
The exhibition is curated by Dublin-basedartist Owen de Forge, originally from Birr, whose workhas been featured in the Hennessy Craig AwardExhibition at the RHA and in solo exhibitions at GarterLane Arts Centre and The Dean Art Studios.
Margo McNutly
The Space Above, Main Street Solo Award Recipient Margo’s work is influenced by traditions inherent in Irish culture and deals with hidden history, memory and place. The work concerns itself with episodes of chance, the intersection of personal and public histories and how these histories and meanings can be embedded in material objects.
Timelines, Growth and Catastrophe
Birr Castle, Copper Tree GalleryCastle opening timesCatherine Ryan, Muriel Beckett, Tish Canniffe,Frances Crowe, Pascale De Coninck, Lorna Donlon,Terry Dunne and Heather Underwood.
This 5 metre collaborative tapestry explores ideasof resilience in uncertain times. Drawing froma broad range of diverse visual references, thiscollaboration also incorporates current UCD plantscience research imagery.
Domestic Mythologies
The Old Cinema Asha Murray, Niamh Coffey, Rebecca Tighe, Laura Angell Domestic Mythologies explores textile as a storytelling medium: tactile, personal and rooted in lived experience. Familiar through our homes, clothing and rituals of everyday life, textiles carry memory, labour and human touch. On first encounter, these works may appear playful, crafted or comforting, yet each artist shifts this often-domestic medium into the realm of contemporary art through unexpected materials, conceptual approaches and layered social histories.
Press Photographs of Ireland
Oxmantown NSAnnual PPAI Exhibition, sponsored byAIB.
This collection of images accuratelydescribes the Ireland of 2026, presentingnot only a record of our island’s history,but also a testament of the incredibleskills of our press photographers.The exhibition is on a national tour.
The Blue Vein
Masonic Hall Artist Emma Barone has collaborated with participants from Avista Support Services, Ashbrook and Riverview, Birr, exploring the heritage of the Camcor River. Using the historic cyanotype photographic process, participants captured the shadows of local flora and geological treasures, connecting Birr’s rich scientific legacy with its natural landscape.
Catastrophe Christor
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre The mind’s ability to make connections is remarkable; it’s how we learn, grow and progress. But this great strength can betray us. In this show, a mind primed to find disaster looks for reassurance, understanding and oneness in diagrams, maps, colour and shape.
Traces
Andrea Moore & Jackie Carter, Jenny Fox Traces bring together three artists exploring the marks left by those who came before us. Through personal histories and family narratives, their work reflects on memory, loss, inheritance and the enduring presence of absent figures. Andrea Moore’s Traces of Him Left Behind responds to the legacy of her grandfather, while Jackie Carter frames her work in a constructed and imagined story. Jenny Fox’s work similarly examines the ways family stories and domestic histories are carried forward through generations. Together, these works reveal how lives once lived continue to resonate in the present, shaping identity, belonging and memory
Let There Be Love
Birr Castle Courtyard Rosie Cole & Shane Carroll A joint commission with Longford Lights and Night and Day Festival. Step inside this pyramid-inspired space of shelter and reflection, where gently changing colours inspired by the body’s chakra energy centres, invite rest, balance and connection. For an enhanced after-dark experience, join the Late-Night Art Walk on Monday and Wednesday evenings.
Glasshammer
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre Rosemarie Langtry, Jean Forristal, Dervla Duffy, Gillian Adams Glass artworks created by four Midlands- based artists under the guidance of Michelle O’Donnell at Glasshammer Studio. Using vibrant fused glass, frits and enamels, the artists have created striking sculptural pieces especially for the Outdoor Gallery at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre.
Birr Brat
Masonic Hall Rosalind Fanning & collaborating artists A sculptural interpretation of the Irish great cloak, worn by chieftains, bards and druids. Made with natural materials. (Community contributions encouraged and considered. See Tin Jug Facebook page for info)
Outdoor Gallery Outdoor Art @TJs
The Masonic Hall Garden The Outdoor Gallery presents a curated selection of works chosen through an Open Call. These works transform the outdoor environment into an accessible exhibition space, inviting visitors to encounter art in unexpected places.
Tin Jug Studio Sunflowers and Insects - outside the gate on St. Brendan Street, by Bernie Stapleton.