The Wind Laboratory workshop with artist Alex Cecchetti
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is excited to present the fourth edition ofEarth Rising, Ireland’s leading festival at the crossroads of climate, culture, and collective action. Taking place across the historic grounds at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin 8, from 12-14 September (this weekend) Earth Rising is a free three-day celebration of creativity, ideas, and grassroots solutions for a changing world.
From radical talks to joyful workshops, immersive installations to grassroots activism, Earth Rising 2025 features over 50 free events designed to inspire, connect, and activate.
This year’s festival is inspired by Staying with the Trouble, IMMA’s acclaimed group exhibition based on Donna Haraway’s influential text. The exhibition and festival together explore how we might live differently in a time of planetary breakdown, not by turning away from complexity, but by staying with it, together.
Here’s five reasons to join us at Earth Rising this weekend!
Community – Meet like-minded people, join conversations that matter, and take part in collective action with artists, thinkers, doers, and makers.
Inspiration & Ideas – From thought provoking talks to intimate panel discussions, discover bold new perspectives on how art, ecology and everyday action can shape our shared future.
Creativity in Action – Experience the best of contemporary creativity, with live performances, interactive installations, film screenings, hands-on-workshops and artist led experiences.
Free and Open to All – Every event is free of charge because Earth Rising is for everyone – whether you are an art lover, a climate campaigner, or simply curious.
The setting – Step into the 17th century grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham – a green oasis in Dublin 8 where meadows, gardens and historic courtyards are transformed into a vibrant festival space for art, ecology, and ideas.
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is proud to announce that this Sunday (7 September 2025) Director, Annie Fletcher, will undertake her first Canonical Residence as part of her new role as Lay Canon at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. This marks a significant moment of connection between two of Dublin 8’s most iconic institutions, IMMA and Christ Church Cathedral, both of which are deeply rooted in heritage, culture, and public engagement.
Annie Fletcher succeeds Mary McAleese, who retired from the role last year, and joins Professor Jim Lucey, the existing Lay Canon. Together, they represent a dynamic and forward-thinking presence within the Cathedral Chapter.
Fletcher’s appointment is a bold and visionary move by Christ Church Cathedral, reflecting its commitment to evolving and engaging with contemporary culture. While IMMA and Christ Church may appear to occupy different cultural spheres- one steeped in tradition, the other in modernity- they share a profound dedication to public service, community connection, and cultural relevance.
Both institutions are national landmarks, central to the identity and development of Dublin 8. They serve as public spaces that invite reflection, dialogue, and creativity, and strive to deepen their impact on the communities they serve. Fletcher’s appointment signals a powerful opportunity to explore new collaborations and shared values between IMMA and Christ Church, reinforcing their roles as spaces of local and national connection with global resonance.
Speaking on her appointment Annie Fletcher said:
“I am honoured to join the Chapter of Christ Church Cathedral as a Lay Canon. This is a unique opportunity to deepen the relationship between contemporary culture and spiritual life, and to contribute to the Cathedral’s role as a place of reflection, community, and creativity. I look forward to working alongside Dean Very Revd. Dermot Dunne, Professor Jim Lucey and the wider Chapter in continuing this important work.”
The service will take place at Choral Evensong at 15:30 on Sunday 7 September. There is no charge to attend and all are welcome.
2 September 2025
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For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact: Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is proud to announce the launch of a six-year international partnership with Irish Arts Center (IAC) in New York, beginning with the U.S. presentation of Patricia Hurl’s acclaimed retrospective, Irish Gothic. This collaboration marks a significant step in IMMA’s 2024–2028 strategy, A Creative Catalyst for Change, which positions IMMA as a Global Connector, committed to amplifying Irish creativity on the world stage through dynamic international partnerships.
Curated by IMMA Collections Curator, Johanne Mullan, Irish Gothic opens at IAC on Friday 5 September and will run for three months. The exhibition spans four decades of Hurl’s powerful and deeply personal work, exploring themes of gender, domesticity, and emotional resilience. Originally presented at IMMA, the exhibition’s journey to New York exemplifies IMMA’s commitment to sharing Irish artistic voices globally.
Publication Launch
Coinciding with the opening of Irish Gothic, IMMA and IAC will also launch the first dedicated publication of Patricia Hurl’s work, marking a long awaited and significant moment in the artist’s career. This richly illustrated volume offers archival material and critical texts and reflections on Hurl’s practice from Jennifer Higgie, Catherine Marshall, and Fionna Barber, and an interview with the artist. The publication was made possible with the support of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, who have supported Patricia Hurl’s wider practice through her Pollock Krasner Award in 2023, making its launch in New York especially meaningful. This marks a major milestone for Hurl and a celebration of her legacy on an international stage.
IMMA’s Leadership as a Cultural Global Connector
Further demonstrating its role as a Global Connector, IMMA is a founding partner of IRELAND INVITES, a groundbreaking initiative launched in 2023 alongside Hugh Lane Gallery and Culture Ireland. This three-year pilot programme brings international biennale curators to Ireland to engage directly with Irish artists and institutions. The initiative has already resulted in 14 Irish artists being selected for major international biennales, including Sydney, Toronto, Liverpool, Lahore, Bangkok, Helsinki, and the Hawai’i Triennial.
One of the most impactful outcomes of this initiative was Kīpuka Ireland, a week-long cultural exchange at the Hawai’i Triennial 2025, curated by IMMA’s Rachael Gilbourne. Through film, performance, and participatory workshops, Irish artists explored shared histories of colonisation, language, and land with local Hawaiian communities, positioning IMMA as a centre for research, dialogue, and global cultural exchange.
IMMA Director Annie Fletcher stated: “Patricia Hurl’s monumental retrospective at IMMA was incredibly moving and I am so pleased that audiences in New York will have the opportunity to connect with her work. I am delighted IMMA is embarking on this new partnership with the IAC. IMMA’s role as a Global Connector is about more than exporting exhibitions. It is about building enduring relationships that foster dialogue, creativity, and shared futures. Our collaboration with IAC and our leadership in IRELAND INVITES are models for how Irish institutions can engage meaningfully with international peers, bringing Irish perspectives to global audiences while inviting diverse voices into our own cultural conversations.”
Irish Arts Center Director of Programming and Education Rachael W. Gilkey said: “The support of Irish Arts Center’s our community has driven our transformation and enabled us to dream as big as this: to partner with an organization as central to Irish and international cultural life and as IMMA, to be equipped to display major museum exhibitions of such scale, and to offer work as striking and evocative as Patricia’s the room it needs to reveal the full expression of four decades of her artistic vision. We’re so excited for New Yorkers to experience this titanic career that’s finally getting the recognition it deserves — and for this work to greet and stir viewers throughout the Fall 2025 season.”
As Ireland prepares for its EU Presidency in 2026 and looks ahead to the Global Ireland 2040 Strategy, IMMA’s international collaborations will continue to play a vital role in shaping Ireland’s cultural identity abroad and at home.
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21 August 2025
Notes:
Gallery hours are drop in, but reservations are encouraged and can be made at irishartscenter.org.
Sept 5-28, Mon-Fri from 2pm to 8pm, Sat and Sun from 1pm to 5pm
Sept 29 to Dec 12, Mon-Fri from 2pm to 8pm, Sat from 1pm to 5pm
Irish Gothic Opening Reception at the Irish Arts Centre, New York
Friday 5 September at 6pm
This is a free event. Reservations are encouraged and can be made at irishartscenter.org
Meet the Curator event
Sept 6 at 2:30pm
This is a free event. Reservations are encouraged and can be made at irishartscenter.org
About Patricia Hurl
Originally from Dublin, Ireland, and a former member of Temple Bar Galleries and Studios Dublin, Patricia Hurl was a lecturer in fine art painting at the Dublin Institute of Technology. She studied at the National College of Art and Design and at Dún Laoghaire School of Art and Design. Patricia Hurl often works in collaboration with artist Therry Rudin, with whom she co-founded the Damer House Gallery in Co Tipperary in 2012, and is a member of Na Cailleacha, a collective of six visual artists, one jazz musician, and a curator/writer. Hurl has exhibited in selected group and solo shows and has represented Ireland in symposiums in the U.S., South Africa, and Zaragoza, Spain. She was a contributor to The Great Book of Ireland, and her work is included in many publications, including Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume V: Twentieth Century, Royal Irish Academy, 2015. Hurl has been the recipient of many awards, including the Pollock-Krasner Award in 2023. Her work is represented in private and public collections including the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA); The Arts Council /An Chomhairle Ealaíon; Drogheda Municipal Collection; Highlanes Gallery; and the University of Limerick.
About Irish Arts Center
Irish Arts Center, founded in 1972 and based in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, is a home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds who share a passion or appreciation for the evolving arts and culture of contemporary Ireland and Irish America. We present, develop, and celebrate work from established and emerging artists and cultural practitioners, providing audiences with emotionally and intellectually engaging experiences—fueled by collaboration, innovation, adventurousness, authenticity, and the celebration of our common humanity, in an environment of Irish hospitality. Steeped in grassroots traditions, we also provide community education programs and access to the arts for people of all ages and ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. In an historic partnership of the people of Ireland and New York, Irish Arts Center recently opened a state-of-the-art new facility to support this mission for the 21st century.
Visit irishartscentre.org for more information.
About Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
Founded in 1991, IMMA is Ireland’s National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art located in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8. Its vibrant, bold, and diverse programme comprises exhibitions, commissions, and event-based projects by leading Irish and international artists, as well as a rich engagement and learning programme which together provides audiences of all ages the opportunity to connect with contemporary art and unlock their creativity. IMMA is also the home of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of nearly 4,000 artworks by Irish and international artists. IMMA makes this national resource available through exhibitions at IMMA and other venues nationally and internationally, engagement and learning programmes and digital resources. Visit imma.ie for further information.
For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact
Seed STUDIO Reading #2. Clodagh Emoe hosts James Bridle reading “Wood Wide Web”, from his book Ways of Being, 2021. Photo Clodagh Emoe. Seed STUDIO was programmed as part of EARTH RISING 2022.
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is delighted to announce the full programme for the fourth Earth Risingfestival, taking place from 12 -14 September 2025 on the grounds of IMMA at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. All events are free of charge, with some requiring advance booking. Full programme details and booking links are now available at imma.ie.
Established in 2021, Earth Rising is Ireland’s leading festival exploring the intersection of climate, culture, and collective action. Presented by IMMA, the festival invites audiences to engage with the big questions of our time through the lens of art, creativity, and community.
Coinciding with the launch of the 2025 programme, IMMA is also announcing that it has officially signed up to Culture Declares Emergency, becoming the first major cultural institution in Ireland to do so. This global movement calls on the cultural sector to respond to the climate and ecological crisis with urgency, imagination, and solidarity.
Festival Overview
This year’s festival is inspired by Staying with the Trouble, IMMA’s current acclaimed group exhibition based on Donna Haraway’s influential text. The exhibition and the wider festival explore how we might live differently in a time of planetary breakdown, not by turning away from complexity, but by staying with it, together.
From radical talks to joyful workshops, restorative installations to grassroots action, Earth Rising 2025 features over 50 free events designed to inspire, connect, and activate.
Programme Highlights
TALKS: A compelling series exploring climate justice, sustainable fashion, civic imagination, and ecological care. Contributors include author Jon Alexander; climate justice advocate Seán McCabe (Bohemians FC); climate expert Fionnuala Moran; ecologist and surfer Easkey Britton; artist john gerrard; and Professor John Barry (Queen’s University Belfast).
MUSIC: Curated by Hen’s Teeth, the music programme showcases a wide range of Irish artists including Negro Impacto, Mohammed Syfkhan, Ispíní na hÉireann, EFÉ, Hewan Mulugeta, and Donal Dineen.
WORKSHOPS: Take part in the joyful and subversive Skate + Forage tour through Dublin’s edible greenways; swap and mend your wardrobe at Change Clothes Dublin; and create wearable art with Shock of Grey’s jewellery workshops.
FILM: Enjoy daily outdoor screenings on Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital outdoor art screen presented at IMMA by IPUT Real Estate. Screenings include the Irish premier of Black Butterflies; the cult visual masterpiece Koyaanisqatsi and the award-winning animated film Flow, presented in partnership with the Dublin International Film Festival.
ART: Enjoy in-depth, themed tours of IMMA’s major exhibitions, including Staying with the Trouble, IMMA Collection: Art as Agency, and the much-loved Kith + Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.
For the first time in Ireland, The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC) will be presented in Ireland. Step inside a powerful art-activist tribunal putting the British East India Company on trial for environmental destruction. Created by Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal, this striking installation in IMMA’s Great Hall runs daily, with a live artist talk on Saturday 13 September.
OPEN CALL PROJECTS: Four ambitious, community-rooted commissions will premiere at Earth Rising:
What If We Were Brilliant? – Lisa Fingleton & Brilliant Ballybunion
Dinnseanchas – Hometree & artists William Bock, Síomha Brock, Zoë Rush, Heather Griffin, Patrick Mulvihill, Peadar-Tom Mercier, Róisín de Buitléar, Grace Wells, Jennifer Ahern, Aindrias de Staic, João Tudella, and Myriam Riand.
Bearing Witness | Holding Space – Interface Inagh – Jane Cassidy, Laney Mannion, Marie Louise Heffernan, and Alannah Robins.
Skate + Forage – Samuel Arnold Keane, Elida Maiques & Pablo Marín García.
Commenting Annie Fletcher, IMMA Director, said: “Earth Rising is a space where difficult realities and radical hope can coexist. In 2025, we’re not only deepening our commitment to these conversations through our festival programming but we’re also taking a clear stand by joining Culture Declares Emergency. IMMA is proud to be the first major Irish institution to do so. This reflects our belief that culture must be central to how we understand, navigate, and respond to the climate and ecological crisis.”
The 2025 Earth Rising festival will be officially launched at a public reception at 6pm on Thursday 24 July at IMMA, featuring music by Big Cheeks, refreshments by Fruition, and a preview of what is to come. All are welcome.
Explore the full programme and book your place at www.imma.ie.
The festival is kindly supported by the Department of Culture, Communications & Sport and Philip Lee LLP, Earth Rising Pollinator Sponsor 2025.
Collaborations and partnerships remain at the heart of Earth Rising 2025. IMMA is proud to work with partners including Bohemians FC in collaboration with IMMA Members; Dublin International Film Festival; Hen’s Teeth; IPUT Real Estate; Native Events; Office of Public Works; Scouting Ireland; The Great Oven; and Holyshow.
24 July 2025
ENDS
For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact: Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023
Additional Notes
About Culture Declares
Culture Declares is a growing movement of individuals and organisations worldwide involved in arts and culture who are declaring a climate and ecological emergency. Its mission is to support and mobilise a global movement of declarers in the cultural sector to take action and inspire others. https://www.culturedeclares.org/
Sweat Variant, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born: let slip, hold sway, 2025. Photography Maria Baranova. Image courtesy the artist and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, is excited to present a new performance installation by New York based Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, acclaimed for their highly experimental, formally inventive cross-disciplinary work, who will present my tongue is a blade, on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June 2025 from 2pm to 5pm, in the Chapel at IMMA.
my tongue is a blade is a three-hour durational movement practice that is a work with relation, memory, and reflection. It asks: What are the limits of our attention and how does that test the strength of our bonds? Three performers commit to remembering each other, holding each other, bearing each other, and sustaining the world that contains them. This rich visual and sonic landscape is an invitation to the audience to witness this practice and resonate within it.
This new piece continues themes of embodied inheritance also explored in Sweat Variant’s acclaimed let slip, hold sway and adaku trilogy. With a confluence of middles and beginnings, but no end, a movement moves in difference across the bodies of the performers. my tongue is a blade will be performed by Okwui Okpokwasili, NY based performer Bria Bacon, and Dublin-based performer Alessandra Azeviche.
The artists Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born are partners in their work and their lives. Since 1996, as Sweat Variant, they have been working at the intersection of dance, theatre, and visual art to make challenging and rigorous work that reaffirms that which has been deemed marginal as the true centre through the exploration of Black interiority.
The Sweat Variant performances are supported by the Sam Gilliam Foundation. The Sam Gilliam Foundation is a primary resource on the pioneering abstract artist Sam Gilliam and carries his legacy forward by supporting visual artists who, like Gilliam, push boundaries and grapple with the pressing issues of our time. IMMA is presenting for the first time in Ireland a solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting. The exhibition Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields runs at IMMA from 13 June 2025 to 25 January 2026.
To coincide with the performance and the Sam Gilliam exhibition, Sweat Variant will screen two films swallow the moon and looking, on Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital art screen, from 5 to 18 June on the front lawn at IMMA.
For media inquiries and images, please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957
20 May 2025
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Additional Information
Sweat Variant, my tongue is a blade
Date: Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 June 2025 Time: 2pm – 5pm daily, performance starts at 2pm. Venue: The Chapel, IMMA Tickets: Tickets: Admission is free. Two entry time slots are available at 2pm and 3:30pm. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after their chosen entry slot and stay for as long as they like. Advance booking is recommended. Performance details: Each durational performance is three hours long, and we encourage audiences to come and go throughout the piece. Entry is rolling through the duration of the installation, and space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Further details and booking:Sweat Variant Performance – IMMA
About Sweat Variant
Sweat Variant describes the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born. They are partners in their work and their lives. Since 1996, they have been working at the intersection of dance, theater, and visual art to make challenging and rigorous work that reaffirms that which has been deemed marginal as the true center through the exploration of Black interiority.
Okpokwasili and Born are interested in building a spectacle of radical intimacy, in which both performers and audience are acknowledged as being locked in a mutual gaze. They build gestural vocabularies and narrative frameworks that are concerned with the problem of memory in the inherent instability of the construction of a persona. They hope to activate a space that allows the audience to question who they are looking at, and how they are looking. They hope this creates a critical space of wonderment, of uncertainty, and of mystery. It is in this space that they believe we can see each other anew.
About the artists
Okwui Okpokwasili (she/her) is a performing artist, choreographer, and writer creating multidisciplinary performance pieces. The child of immigrants from Nigeria, Okpokwasili was born and raised in the Bronx, and the histories of these places and the girls and women who inhabit them feature prominently in much of her work. Her highly experimental productions include the Bessie Award-winning Pent-up: A Revenge Dance, the Bessie Award-winning Bronx Gothic, as well as Poor People’s TV Room, when I return who will receive me, Adaku’s Revolt, and the participatory performance installation Sitting on a Man’s Head, and adaku, part 1: the road opens. Recent works include installations in the exhibitions Grief and Grievance, Art and Mourning in America at the New Museum (NYC), Witchhunt at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. Commissions include the performance on the way, undone at the High Line in NYC and at Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival, the film Returning for Danspace Project, the site-specific performance swallow the moon at Jacob’s Pillow, and a new 2024 commission from Little Island as part of its commitment to supporting original work.
Her work has been presented at such venues as the Walker Art Center, Performance Space New York, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, ICA Boston, MCA Chicago, BAM, and New York Live Arts. She has worked with film and theater directors Carrie Mae Weems, Ralph Lemon, Arthur Jafa, Terence Nance, Josephine Decker, Mika Rottenberg, Mahyad Tousi, Charlotte Brathwaite, Jim Findlay, Annie Dorsen, and Peter Born. Okpokwasili is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellowship, a 2018 Herb Alpert Award, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship. Okpokwasili was the 2015-2017 Randjelovic/Stryker New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA.) She was the inaugural artist for the Kravis Studio Residency program at MoMA in 2022, and an artist in residence at the Brown Arts Institute in 2023.
Peter Born (he/him) works as a director, composer, and designer of performance and installation, often in collaboration with Okwui Okpokwasili, with whom he has created the installation turn, return at the Doris Duke Foundation (2024), repose without rest without end in Trondheim (2021), swallow the moon at Jacob’s Pillow (2021), on the way, undone at the High Line (2021), Poor People’s TV Room (SOLO) installation at the New Museum and the Hammer Museum (2021), Sitting on a Man’s Head (2019) at Danspace Project, Adaku’s Revolt (2019) at Abrons Arts Center, Poor People’s TV Room (2017), when I return, who will receive me (2016), Bronx Gothic (The Oval) (2014), Bronx Gothic (2013), and pent-up: a revenge dance (2009). Born and Okpokwasili also produced an album, day pulls down the sky, in 2019. Their work has also appeared in the Berlin Biennale and at the Tate Modern, London. Born has collaborated with David Thomson as a director, designer, and writer on The Venus Knot (2017) and he his own mythical beast (2018), and as a set designer for Nora Chipaumire’s rite/riot (2014) and El Capitan Kinglady (2016). His work Poor People’s TV Room (SOLO), created in collaboration with Okpokwasili, is in the collections of the Hammer Museum and the Whitney Museum. Four of his collaborations have garnered New York Dance Performance (Bessie) Awards.
His work as an art director and prop stylist has been featured in video and photo projects with Vogue, Estee Lauder, Barney’s Co-op, Bloomingdales, Old Navy, 25 magazine, The Wall Street Journal and No Strings Puppet Productions. Born is a former New York public high school teacher, itinerant floral designer, corporate actor-facilitator, video maker, and furniture designer.
For more information about Sweat Variant / Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, visit www.sweatvariant.com.
About the Performers
Okwui Okpokwasili as above.
Bria Bacon is a performing artist, predominantly trained in dance, holding passions and gifts in writing, theatre, sound-making and singing. She has worked with Bebe Miller Company, Stefanie Batten Bland, ChameckiLerner, Wendell Gray II, Sally Silvers, Donna Uchizono, Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Stephen Petronio Company, and Kyle Marshall Choreography, as well as Beth Gill and Rachel Comey in NYFW and Company Christoph Winkler in Berlin. Currently, she is working with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group and Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born), among others. All praise to the angels, ancestors, and folx within her village.
Alessandra Azeviche is a Dublin-based Bahia-born dance artist who has been breaking boundaries in Ireland since 2018. A leading Afro-Brazilian artist connecting ancestral movements to a contemporary approach. Founder of the multicultural, counter-colonial Afro-Brazilian community Quilombo Terra in 2022, Azeviche also sits on the board of Dublin Dance Festival. Her acclaimed solo debut ‘Terra’ was performed at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2024, nominated for two Fringe awards. She has also performed in Irish Modern Dance Theatre shows, and as part of Hot Brown Honey at Dublin Fringe 2022. Azeviche is increasingly working in contemporary arts performance, dealing with themes of counter colonization and intersectionality.
swallow the moon swallow the moon is the second in a series of lamentations that mark the rupture between a precolonial West African body and the charged space of identity within a contemporary Black body. At the heart of this epic song is a mother’s wail with the gravitational force of generations. It signals a mother’s grief for a lost daughter. Her cries are doubled in embodied shadows that gather around her–cries so loud, with a mouth going so wide, she would swallow the world.Conceived, composed and performed by Okwui Okpokwasili with additional collaboration by Lucia Betelou, Willow Green, Julianna Massa, Adriana Ogle
Headpieces designed by Peter Born and Okwui Okpokwasili. Scenic elements and audio design by Peter Born.
looking looking is part of the installation for a larger work, called poor people’s tv room (solo) In his novel “Foreign Gods Inc.” by Okey Ndibe, the main character visits a friend of his in his hometown in Nigeria. His friend has become rich, and his way of sharing that wealth with the community was to build an extra living room to his house, where people could come and sit in the air conditioning and watch old Michael Jordan videos. He called it a “poor people’s tv room” and that inspired the title of this work—this idea of providing a room where someone else’s aspirations were always on a loop, a space set “alongside time,” rather than in it.
Inspired by the events of the Woman’s War of 1929 in southeastern Nigeria, the “Bring Back Our Girls Movement” in 2014 and the movement for Black Lives (BLM) in the US in 2014, this work considers how protest movements are durational acts. These acts transmit embodied knowledge through generations and across continents, even when cultural histories have been suppressed. This work explores the relationship between these durational acts and performance practice.
This installation is in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Created by Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born. Cinematography by Iki Nakagawa.
Launching with a major solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting
And a new performance by award winning New York based Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born
Sweat Variant, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born: let slip, hold sway, 2025. Photography Maria Baranova. Image courtesy the artist and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, is excited to launch Summer at IMMA 2025,a dynamic programme of free events for all ages, that includes exhibitions, performances, screenings, talks, workshops, tours and more, taking place in the beautiful surroundings of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham from June to August.
The 2025 summer programme launches with a major new exhibition Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields, presenting a solo exhibition by pioneering abstract artist Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022) one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, opening on 13 June 2025. Also showing this summer is a major display from IMMA’s Permanent Collection Art as Agency;a stunning exhibition of quilts by the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers; and an ambitious new exhibition Staying with the Trouble showcasing the work of over 40 artists which includes a life performance event on 26 July.
IMMA is excited to present a new performance installation by New York based Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, who present my tongue is a blade, on Sat 14 and Sun 15 June, from 2 to 5pm, in the Chapel at IMMA.
Other highlights include a new IMMA Horizons workshop series exploring creative interventions in urban ecologies; a storytelling event that shares Travellers stories inspired by the IMMA Collection work Why the Moon Travels by Leanne McDonagh; and a harvest celebration of The Model Plot by Deirdre O’Mahony where you can take part in a feast of spuds, music and storytelling. These bespoke events are presented alongside visitor favourites including art workshops, biodiversity tours, heritage tours, yoga classes and our popular Music in the Courtyard series on Sunday afternoons.
The summer programme culminates with EARTH RISING, IMMA’s vibrant free festival of art, ecology, and ideas, running from 12 to 14 September.
This summer IMMA will launch a new app, joining forces with Smartify the world’s most popular digital museum guide. The app provides new digital experiences for visitors to IMMA enhancing engagement through interactive features such as audio tours, interactive maps, image recognition and more.
Summer at IMMA Programme Highlights
Emerging in the mid-1960s, Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022) is best known for his canonical Drape paintings, which expanded on the principles of Abstract Expressionism in entirely new ways. Suspending unstretched lengths of painted canvas from the walls or ceilings of exhibition spaces, Gilliam transformed his medium and the contexts in which it was viewed. This exhibition of his work Sewing Fields, co-organised with the Sam Gilliam Foundation, draws on a period in the early 1990s when Gilliam visited Ireland and began a sequence of abstract paintings in reaction to the Irish landscape – a body of work which showcases his exceptional mastery of colour, form, and material. Following his time in Ireland, Gilliam continued his innovative exploration of sewn and collaged works, liberating canvases from traditional supports blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture.
A new durational performance installationmy tongue is a blade bySweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, acclaimed for their highly experimental, formally inventive cross-disciplinary work, has been created for IMMA and is supported by the Sam Gilliam Foundation. my tongue is a blade is a three-hour durational movement practice that is a work with relation, memory, and reflection. It asks: What are the limits of our attention and how does that test the strength of our bonds? Three performers commit to remembering each other, holding each other, bearing each other, and sustaining the world that contains them. This rich visual and sonic landscape is an invitation to the audience to witness this practice and resonate within it.
IMMA Horizons presents a new workshop seriesCreative interventions in urban ecologiesthat investigates the intersections of art, ecological thought and urban farming as sites of resistance, resilience and reimagination. Participants will explore how creative interventions in urban ecologies can challenge dominant narratives of land use, ownership and sustainability.
Throughout the summerLiving Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital outdoor art screen presented at IMMA by IPUT Real Estate, will feature film and moving image works by artists Ammar Bouras, Pádraic Barrett, Marion Bergin, Sarah Browne, Linda Brownlee, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Ahree Lee, Susan Thomson and Sweat Variant, amongst others. The programme includes one-off film screenings on selected Thursday evenings from 6 to 8pm.
Summer at IMMA celebrates Pride Month with a special programme of events that includes a Family Friendly Pride Day on 22 June, with a LGBTQ+ inclusive Céilí and family art workshop. Other events include Queer Eye on the IMMA Collection a guided tour of LGBTQ+ artists in the exhibition Art as Agency on 21 June; a workshop Explore queer identity and creativity through zine making on 27 June; DJ performances by JWY and President Todi; and a screening of Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor’s film work laying fire (2022), an experimental memory work on intimacy.
IMMA Talks invites renowned critical thinkers, writers, artists, and international curators to share their contemporary views. Keynote talks, artists’ discussions and gallery talks draw on IMMA’s programmes to explore themes of land, agency, resistance, and the environment. Highlights include a panel discussion L’internationale Museum of the Commons Summer School exploring Landscape (post) Conflict on 9 and 10 July; Lifelong Creativity & Learning for the Curious with Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Director MISA, James St Hospital on 16 July; and to celebrate National Heritage Week a conversation Recording History: Picturing Derry with directors of Picturing Derry Sylvia Stevens and David Fox on 19 August.
A variety of community events, gatherings, and workshops will take place as part of Summer at IMMA. These include a workshop led by the Bahian artist Thaís Muniz, founder of the Turbante-se platform, that explores the history, meaning, and everyday practice of turbans and headwraps across Afro-Atlantic cultures, on 5 July. A Sarau Session on 6 Aug, this is a live gathering connecting transcultural multidisciplinary artists who live and make art in transit. Throughout the summer a series of zine making workshops will explore queer identity; the immigration experience; and feminist discourse. The Engagement Hub: Art in Action will run three family workshops, this partnership between IMMA, Superprojects and the Angelica Network aims to empower racialised and ethnic diverse artists to participate in arts education for children and young people.
Summer at IMMA’s much-loved programmes, delivered by IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team, continue this year. These include Slow Looking Art Tours, Art & Mindfulness workshops,yoga classes, heritage tours, biodiversity tours, family workshops andParent and Baby Hour at the Museum.
IMMA’s popular Music in the Courtyard series continues on Sunday afternoons and will feature family Céilí’s with live trad music; DJ sets; singer songwriters and jazz and theatre bands.
To round off a very special summer EARTH RISING returns for a fourth year from 12 to 14 September. This year’s festival will spark transformative climate conversations and actions through immersive cultural experiences. This year’s theme, “Making Kin,” invites audiences to explore meaningful connections — with each other, the natural world, and the urgent challenges of our time.
The new IMMA Café, which includes an outdoor van, is open all summer for coffee, lunch and treats!
For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957
13 May 2025
Additional notes for Editors
Summer at IMMA
June / July / August
Webpage with full details and calendar: SUMMER AT IMMA – IMMA
Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields – Opening Events Opening Reception: Thursday 12 June 2025 / 6 – 8pm
Performance: Sweat Variant, my tongue is a blade Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June 2025 / 2 – 5pm
Free, booking required at Sweat Variant Performance – IMMA
Curators’ Lunchtime Talk: Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fieldswith Mary Cremin
Wednesday 18 June 2025, 1.15pm – 2.15pm
Free, Booking required, Book Here
Join Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA who introduces the new exhibition Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields. Discover the artist’s ground-breaking approach to painting and the influences of Irish landscape on his work.
IMMA MEMBERS
IMMA MEMBERS offers access to a calendar of seasonal events, retail discounts at the IMMA Shop, a 10% discount on all items at the IMMA café, and bespoke merchandise. On 23 May, IMMA MEMBERS will host its second event of 2025, an In Conversation with internationally renowned fashion designer Simone Rocha and IMMA Collection artist and photographer Perry Ogden. Tickets for his event are now sold out – but the 2025 IMMA MEMBERS programme is still bustling. In late summer, IMMA welcomes Bohemian Football Club, among others, as they discuss how unlikely platforms create social change. Ending 2025 on a high, we will collaborate with global storytelling phenomenon Seanchoíche to bring another heartwarming night to IMMA, only for IMMA MEMBERS. To access the booking links for our upcoming events, make sure you are subscribed to the IMMA MEMBERS newsletter here. All are encouraged to join our newsletter mailing list, however, booking for these events will be made available exclusively to IMMA MEMBERS. To become an IMMA MEMBER click here.
Venus Patel, ‘Still from Daisy: Prophet of the Apocalypse’ (2023). Courtesy of the Artist
An ambitious new group exhibition, Staying with the Trouble, inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s seminal work of the same name, opens at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) on Friday 2 May 2025. The exhibition features over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time.
Pushing against social norms, Staying with the Trouble challenges us and attempts to make sense of the present, questioning interspecies relationships, ideas of transformation, and renewal. The exhibition challenges human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.
The exhibition follows Haraway’s propositions such as “Making Kin”, “Composting” and “Sowing Worlds”, inviting visitors to rethink their connections with humans, animals, and ecosystems. Other propositions include “Critters”, emphasising the agency of non-human life, while “Techno-Apocalypse” critiques dystopian views on technology, proposing a more nuanced, interconnected future.
Commenting on the exhibition Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA, said; “Staying with the Trouble is a call to rethink, reshape our views — to stay present in complexity, to unlearn human-centric ways of seeing, and to lean into the radical potential of kinship across species, materials, and worlds. This exhibition is both a provocation and an invitation — to reimagine our place in a shared, entangled future.”
There will be a screening programme of film and moving image works as part of Living Canvas at IMMA, running throughout May to September.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a live performance series on Saturday 26 July 2025.
Artists featured in the exhibition include Farouk858, Kian Benson Bailes, George Bolster, Renèe Helèna Browne, Myrid Carten, Elizabeth Cope, Redd Ekks, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Andy Fitz, Laura Fitzgerald, Marie Foley, Paddy Graham, Aoibheann Greenan, Kerry Guinan, Austin Hearne, Atsushi Kaga, Michael Kane, Sam Keogh, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Diaa Langan, Áine Mac Giolla Bhríde, Marielle MacLeman, Alan Magee, Christopher Mahon, Michelle Malone, Colin Martin, Maria McKinney, Bea McMahon, Thaís Muniz, Bridget O’Gorman, Venus Patel, Samir Mahmood, Alice Rekab, Eoghan Ryan, Jacqui Shelton, Sonia Shiel, Katie Watchorn, Luke van Gelderen, amongst others.
Staying with the Trouble
2 May – 21 September 2025
Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm Webpage: Staying with the Trouble
IMMA TALK
Preview Artists’ Conversation: Staying with the Trouble Thurs 1 May 2025 / 5.00pm – 6.15pm / Lecture Room, IMMA
Join us for the exhibition preview and artists’ conversation with special guests whose work is part of Staying with the Trouble. Artists speaking include Laura Fitzgerald, Eoghan Ryan, Jacqui Shelton, Marie Foley, and Atsushi Kaga. Moderated by Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA. Admission free, book online
EARTH RISING 2025 The EARTH RISING festival (12 – 14 September 2025) will align with Staying with the Trouble guided by Haraway’s concept of “making kin”—collaborating across species and communities.
Epic new work by Irish artist Clare Langan headlines Living Canvas at IMMA Programme.
Annie Fletcher, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Clare Langan, artist, Niall Gaffney, Chief Executive, of IPUT Real Estate, and Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA. Photo: Sasko Lazarov, Photocall Ireland
IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts, are excited to launch the Spring/Summer programme of Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital art screen on the grounds of IMMA. The programme launches from today (Friday 11 April, 2025) with the premiere of Irish artist Clare Langan’s epic new film work Alchemy, 2023.
In the aftermath of a pandemic and a time of numerous climate crises, Clare Langan’s Alchemy symbolises an alchemical change that is necessary for the human species and the planet to survive. This sensory-rich film of provoking visuals and original music takes the viewer through a journey of narrative transformation and revolution. The visuals are shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan and artist Clare Langan, with an original score by Gyða Valtýsdóttir and soundscape by Daniel Goddard. Alchemy will be shown until 23 April and will form part of the museum’s celebration of Earth Day on 22 April.
In May, to coincide with a major display from IMMA’s Permanent Collection called Art as Agency,Living Canvas at IMMA will screen highlights from the IMMA Collection moving image works featuring artist Maïa Nunes, followed by Duncan Campbell, and Deirdre O’Mahony, amongst others.
To celebrate Pride 2025, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor’s film work laying fire (2022), an experimental memory work on intimacy will be screened in June. This will be followed across the summer months with screenings by artists Ammar Bouras, Pádraic Barrett, Marion Bergin, Sarah Browne, Linda Brownlee, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Ahree Lee, Susan Thomson, and Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born). The summer programme will also include one-off film screenings on selected Thursday evenings from 6pm to 8pm from 19 June to 28 August.
In September to coincide with EARTH RISING, IMMA’s festival dedicated to sparking climate conversations, Living Canvas at IMMA will screen a thought provoking film programme including works by artists Telu Von Flap, Martina O’ Brien, Tina Claffey, Simone Kessler, Aoife Desmond, Linda Schirmer, Stijn Ank, Tanya de Paor, Denis Buckley, Una Walker, Anna Korbut, Zoë Uí Fhaolain, and Paul Hallahan.
Local, national, and international creative partnerships are central to the Living Canvas at IMMA programme. These range from Dublin International Film Festival and art and technology’s Beta Festival, to collaborations further afield including the Jarman Award, London, and BIENALSUR, the International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America.
IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts, has successfully presented Living Canvas, at two of its buildings in Dublin’s city centre since 2021. The Living Canvas large-scale outdoor public art screen, now located on IMMA’s front lawn for two years allowing visitors and the wider community to enjoy a vibrant programme of artworks by Irish and international artists in IMMA’s beautiful surroundings.
Niall Gaffney, Chief Executive, of IPUT Real Estate, commenting on the launch said “As a long-term investor in Dublin, IPUT Real Estate is committed to creating a space for culture in and around our buildings. We want to ensure Dublin remains an attractive and vibrant place to work and live. In this regard, we provide artists with spaces to create work, and to platform that work to the city. We are very proud of our Living Canvas initiative that to date has displayed the work of 120 artists and 100 individual art and literary works. We are excited to see Living Canvas at IMMA, and we are proud to support the work of the museum.”
Mary Cremin, Head of Programming at IMMA said “Living Canvas has enlivened the IMMA’s grounds, providing a welcoming space for visitors to delve into a captivating film programme in their own time. The partnership with IPUT Real Estate has opened new opportunities for the museum to collaborate with and support festivals across Ireland and bring international screenings to new audiences at IMMA.”
11 April 2025
– ENDS –
For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 Caroline Kennedy E: [email protected] T: 086 2449805
Additional notes for Editors
Living Canvas at IMMA webpage – Living Canvas at IMMA – IMMA Screens daily from Monday to Sunday from 9.30am to 6.30pm.
About IPUT Real Estate Dublin
IPUT Real Estate is Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts Owner of 70 buildings in many of Dublin’s city centre neighbourhoods, IPUT is committed to positively shaping the public realm and to supporting arts and culture within the city. Across its portfolio, IPUT supports and showcase Irish artists and creators – commissioning sculptures, paintings and installations that stimulate and sustain the occupiers of its buildings and those who live, work, and socialise in the neighbourhoods in which those buildings are located.
About Living Canvas
IPUT Real Estate launched Living Canvas in 2021 as a spectacular presentation of public art using giant outdoor screens at two of its sites in Dublin’s city centre: Wilton Park off Baggot Street, and at the Tropical Fruit Warehouse on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2. The custom designed screens debuted the works of leading Irish and international artists produced in partnership with leading cultural institutions the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI). Over the course of two years, Living Canvas featured the work of more than 120 artists and presented close to 100 individual art and literary works.
About IMMA
Founded in 1991, IMMA is Ireland’s National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art located in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Its vibrant, bold, and diverse programme comprises exhibitions, commissions, and event-based projects by leading Irish and international artists, as well as a rich engagement and learning programme which together provides audiences of all ages the opportunity to connect with contemporary art and unlock their creativity. IMMA is also the home of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of nearly 4,000 artworks by Irish and international artists. IMMA makes this national resource available through exhibitions at IMMA and other venues nationally and internationally, engagement and learning programmes and digital resources.
Art as Agency heralds a new role for the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, TD, pictured with Ali Curran, Chair of IMMA and Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, IMMA at the launch of a major new display of the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art called Art as Agency featuring over 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present.
Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan T.D. launched (Wednesday 26 February 2025) a major new display of the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Art as Agency is a landmark exhibition, featuring over 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present, including many recent acquisitions.
Art as Agency marks a significant shift in IMMA’s approach, moving away from fast-paced exhibition turnover to a more considered long-term model. Running for three years, this exhibition underscores IMMA’s commitment to sustainability by reducing the impact of frequent installations while fostering deeper public engagement with the National Collection.
Since its foundation in 1991, IMMA has been at the forefront of contemporary art in Ireland, producing dynamic and ambitious exhibitions. Under its strategy 2024-2028 ‘A Creative Catalyst for Change’, IMMA is embracing its role as a ‘modern museum’, creating a space for critical reflection and public engagement. By adopting long-term permanent collection displays, IMMA is not only expanding access to the National Collection but also shaping a more sustainable model of museum programming.
IMMA’s Collection has grown significantly since 2020, now comprising over 4,500 artworks, thanks to support from the Department of Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport. As part of an increasingly research-focused curatorial approach, IMMA is also acquiring key archives of artists, curators and theorists, providing valuable insights into shifts in artistic practice and the wider political and social contexts in which these works were created.
Speaking at the launch, Minister O’Donovan said: “It is encouraging to see how IMMA is using our National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art to produce research-led exhibitions. These pieces tell social, political, and environmental stories that resonate with audiences here and all over the world. The introduction of long-term displays of the Collection will mean more people will get a chance to visit this important public resource. It gives more time and opportunities for audiences to delve deeper into how they consider these pieces. This complements my priority, as Minister, to facilitate and enhance public access to and engagement with culture.”
Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections at IMMA, said: “By interweaving historical and contemporary narratives, Art as Agency is a true celebration of the growth of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art over the past 30 years. I am delighted that we can show so many of the significant works in the Collection, many of which are recent acquisitions and have not been seen by the public before.”
ENDS For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957
IMMA Collection: Art as Agency Now until 6 February 2028
Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm Webpage:IMMA Collection: Art as Agency
IMMA Talk IMMA Collection: Art as Agency Thursday 27 February at 4pm / Johnston Suite, IMMA / Booking required on imma.ie
Join Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator, Head of Collections at IMMA, for an engaging lecture on IMMA Collection: Art as Agency. This talk is followed by the opening of the exhibition. A recording of this talk is available to listen back to on IMMA’s SoundCloud channel. Places are limited for this talk.
Leola Pettway and Qunnie Pettway working at the Freedom Quilting Bee, 1972. Copyright Mary McCarthy. Courtesy of Souls Grown Deep. Courtesy of Souls Grown Deep
A new exhibition of quilts made by the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, a group of African American women with a 200-year tradition of quilt making, opens at IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, on Friday 28 February 2025, co-organised with Souls Grown Deep. Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend follows the legacy and familial traditions of quilt making that have existed in Gee’s Bend, a remote river island community in Alabama dating from the 19th century.
The quilts are a testament to resilience, community, and a legacy woven through generations. Passed down primarily from mother to daughter, the tradition of quilt making flourished within a tight-knit community grappling with the enduring legacy of slavery, oppression and the fight for civil rights. The women of Gee’s Bend have created quilts that hold both artistic and political significance. Artistically, their work is renowned for its improvisational style, bold colours, and abstract designs, often compared to modernist art movements like abstract expressionism. The quilts, made from recycled fabrics, are deeply rooted in African American textile traditions and showcase unique creativity in geometric patterns.
Politically, the quilts reflect resilience and self-sufficiency, as they were born out of necessity in an economically deprived, racially segregated region. Imbued with a deep connection to the land, their ancestors and geography, each stitch is a poignant reminder of the struggles and triumphs of a community that persevered through adversity.
Commenting on the exhibition Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA, said; “The quilts of Gee’s Bend transcend mere craft; they are powerful social and historical documents. They offer a critical counter-narrative to dominant art historical discourse, challenging the traditional hierarchies that often exclude the voices of marginalised communities. Kith & Kin is the first in a series of exhibitions at IMMA this year that will explore the use of textiles in art making”.
While the artistry of Gee’s Bend has been exhibited in museums worldwide, Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend marks the first time the quilts have been shown in Ireland. The exhibition concentrates on the connection between mother and daughter and the intergenerational relationships seen in the different styles, patterns and colours. The significance of storytelling through the quilts is an important part of the making, with the quilts serving as both a celebration of African American heritage and a testament to the strength and creativity of women in the face of systemic oppression. This exhibition aims to recognise their invaluable contribution to art, and to ensure that their legacy continues to inspire and enrich future generations.
– ENDS – For media inquiries, please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 Additional Information
Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend 28 February – 27 October 2025 Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm Webpage: Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
IMMA Talk The Ties that Bind: Community and Artistry in the Quilts of Gee’s Bend A lecture by Raina Lampkins-Fielder Thursday 27 February at 5pm / Johnston Suite, IMMA / Booking required on imma.ie
Raina Lampkins-Fielder, Chief Curator for Souls Grown Deep, presents a talk on the unique quilt making tradition of Gee’s Bend. This talk is followed by the opening of Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.
A recording of this talk will be made available to listen back to on IMMA’s SoundCloud channel. Places are limited for this talk.
About Souls Grown Deep
Souls Grown Deep (SGD) advocates the artistic recognition and empowerment of Black artists from the American South, promoting visibility, scholarship, and education about their contributions to art history and fostering economic development and racial and social justice in their communities. Founded in 2010, the organization derives its name from a 1921 poem by Langston Hughes (1901-67) titled The Negro Speaks of Rivers, the last line of which is “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”
Souls Grown Deep stewards the foremost collection of works by Black artists from the Southern United States, and advances recognition for artists through collection transfers, research, loans, exhibitions, education, public programs, and publications. More than 500 works from SGD’s collection have been acquired by over 40 museums in the U.S. and around the globe, creating new opportunities for public access and scholarship. A leading voice for equitable practices in the art world, SGD works collaboratively with artists and communities to advance their stated needs and goals through support for the creative economy, intellectual property rights, fair compensation models, economic and political empowerment, and values-aligned investing. For more information, please visit soulsgrowndeep.org.
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