Motion Marks is a new collaborative visual arts project from An Táin Arts Centre’s Off-Site programme between visual artist Órlaith Cullinane, An Táin Arts Centre’s former Dancer in Residence 2020, Fiona Keenan–O’Brien. Órlaith has been drawing dancer Fiona in movement and these images have been painted onto large flags and will fly at Dundalk town centre locations.

The work deals with restrictions, limitations, and boundaries – physical and mental – and our movements, freedoms, and adaptations within them. There will also be an accompanying audio track specially composed by Zoë Conway, An Táin Arts Centre’s Trad Musician in Residence, that can be accessed online at each flag. A poster at each location will contain a QR code that you can scan with your phone and listen along to, as you view the flags.

Motion Marks will launch on Friday 16th of April on Facebook, where Director of An Táin Arts Centre Paul Hayes will discuss the inspiration and processes undertaken to create the project with Órlaith Cullinane. Join us for the launch and then take a stroll around Dundalk and enjoy this collaborative visual arts experience in an urban space.

In partnership with the Science Gallery

This spring, Highlanes Gallery present a touring exhibition that interrogates our current and future relationship with this material.

Plastic has great power, and with great power comes great responsibility. It has changed our daily lives and our environment more than any other material. Its use has revolutionised industrial design, and more essentially, modern medicine relies on plastic so heavily that even the most basic medical procedures would be unimaginable without it.

The unsustainability of our relationship with plastic is well documented, but to stop using plastic is not an option.

The question is, can we utilise this wonderful, terrible material, while fundamentally changing our approach to living with plastic?

The exhibition features the work of over thirty national and international artists, designers and scientists, as well as a newly commissioned work facilitated by artists Patrick Mulvihill, Heather Griffin and Ciarán Bonner, with the local community in Drogheda in a co-creation process, the artwork – A Giant Leap – reflecting the cultural history, place and relationship between the people and their environment.

PLASTIC is produced with the support of Science Foundation Ireland, and is Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin’s first national touring exhibition.

Ahead of the exhibition’s presentation in Drogheda, in early 2020, a Special Primary School Programme took place where two classes from Marymount N.S. & artist Claire Halpin visited the original exhibition in Dublin and following a series of workshop sessions created a range of 3D and written work in response. This will be presented online during the run of the exhibition.

PLASTIC Guided Tours – Family

In early February, parents, take a break from home-schooling and join Erin one of the Science Gallery’s Mediator Team for a (free) educational and thought-provoking guided tour of PLASTIC.

Dates and Times:

Wednesday 3rd February at 12noon – Event Brite Tickets
Wednesday 10th February at 12noon – Event Brite Tickets

PLASTIC Guided Tours & Zine Making – Second Level

Teachers, book ahead for March guided online tours of PLASTIC. You can avail of two options, the tour & zine-making session as three sessions, over three weeks, or a once-off tour. The gallery is open to matching with your class schedule so simply email Aoife Ruane, aruane@highlanes.ie

PLASTIC A Giant Leap – Dynamic Workshop for Young People

Hosted by artists Heather Griffin & Patrick Mulvihill, A Giant Leap is a three hour exploration workshop of Drogheda, past and present, to co-create a future scenario based around the materiality of plastic in partnership with Science Gallery Dublin and Highlanes Gallery.

Dates and Times:

Tuesday 23rd February at 12noon – Event Brite Tickets

Our First Solo Award offers support and funding at a key point in the careers of professional visual artists in the North East region who have yet to present a solo show.  Previous recipients include Eimear Murphy, with her exhibition Shape, Heap; thing in 2018, and Sean McGuill, with The Great Filter in 2019.

For 2021/22 we are delighted to announce the recipients are Olga Duka and Rodney Thornton. We look forward to working with both artists. 

Olga Duka is a Ukrainian artist living and working in Ireland. She graduated from Kiev College of Decorative Arts and Design in 1997 as a Textile Artist and Designer. She has been working as a freelance artist specialising in fine and decorative arts as well as tapestry making and textile design. Olga expresses her own trans-cultural background through a unique combination of styles that is reminiscent of medieval art. Olga’s work has featured in group exhibitions in Ireland, Great Britain, Italy and Ukraine. Her paintings are represented in private collections in Ireland, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, Mexico, USA and Ukraine. Olga recently participated in the Connection project at Droichead. Olga’s exhibition will open in September 2021. 

Rodney Thornton has been making paintings on the street since returning from Korea in 2008. The local sweet shop, the ice-cream van arriving on the street corner and the deep culture resting around the local GAA pitch, these are scenes which take place in every community across Ireland and they are some of the themes that turn up in Rodney’s paintings. Rodney’s work has featured in many group exhibitions including; the Boyne Room, Millmount; The Listoke Gallery; The Abbey Gallery, and as part of the Borrowed Ground Collective in 2019 in Droichead. Rodney’s current art practice is about looking and exploring how we receive our surroundings. Rodney’s exhibition will open in March 2022. 

Explore the wonders of the National Gallery of Ireland’s collection, and take a leisurely stroll around our beautiful galleries from the comfort of your own home in the first in a series of virtual tours.

Our physical buildings may be temporarily closed, but you can transport yourself behind our walls by taking a virtual tour of our rooms, where you are free to navigate and explore the works on display at your own pace.