IMMA Outdoors activates the 48 acres of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and safely connects audiences through artist commissions, performances, talks, workshops, tours, pop-up exhibitions and open air cafes. Building on the success of last year’s outdoor space The People’s Pavilion and our Social Distancing Circles, IMMA Outdoors turns the museum’s programme inside out, creating an inspiring programme of activities and events.
As IMMA celebrates its 30th Birthday, the IMMA Outdoors programme reflects on and activates the museum’s recent contemporary history alongside the site’s historical resonances. The emphasis for the programme lies in ideas of civic agency, self-determination, global interconnections, environmental concerns and what it means to be radically public by creating an inclusive meaningful space for all ages to relax, contemplate and enjoy.
Highlights of the programme include Poetry Speaks in the Garden House, a series of poetry films that seek to integrate poetry into everyday life, presented by The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation NYC, Poetry Ireland and Druid; the latest evolution of Club Chroma Chlorologia by Niall Sweeney in the Formal Gardens; music in the Courtyard from the Sundays@Noon programme with the Hugh Lane Gallery; Ping Pong Diplomacy by Mark Clare on the Garden Terrace where you can test your skills, and a new production by Croí Glan, Integrated Dance Company.
IMMA Outdoors brings bespoke seating and convivial gathering structures to IMMA’s grounds with a newly commissioned project, titled Y O U N G F O S S I L, by the collaborative arts practice Forerunner, founded by Tom Watt, Tanad Aaron and Andreas Kindler von Knobloch in 2016.
Other projects include A Radical Plot where IMMA’s Residency Programme artists will create a ‘Studio Street’ of activation with commissions.
IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team (VET) deliver bespoke garden tours, art workshops, yoga classes and family activities, that fuse the importance of well-being and engagement with ideas and creativity, offering visitors a space in which to convene, explore and reflect.
IMMA is also working with the museum’s community neighbours such as Common Ground and Fatima Groups United and St James’ Hospital MISA programme to facilitate, workshops, tours and a space to meet.
All this is set off by our two Pavilions located on the front lawn and meadows and our popular cafe The Flying Dog located in the courtyard.
