IMMA’s 2025 programme opens with a major three-year display celebrating IMMA’s Permanent Collection titled IMMA Collection: Art as Agency, that showcases over 100 artists from the 1960s to the present, highlighting key works including many recent acquisitions. Through thematic, chronological, geographical, and media-based approaches, Art as Agency examines how artworks connect across time and contexts, fostering new interpretations and relevance. Opening on 8 February this ambitious exhibition will invite engagement and research, allowing for a rich durational experience of Ireland’s Modern and Contemporary Art Collection.

Central to the 2025 exhibition programme is an exploration of artists working with textiles, two of which share connections to Ireland. IMMA is presenting solo exhibitions of their work in Ireland for the first time. The first exhibition opening on 28 February will be Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, featuring the work of a group of African American women from a small Alabama community with a 150-year tradition of quilt-making.

Opening on 13 June is a solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, co-organised with the Sam Gilliam Foundation. Emerging in the mid-1960s, his canonical ‘Drape’ paintings merged painting, sculpture, and performance in conversation with architecture in entirely new ways. Following an influential artist residency in Ireland in Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo in the early 1990s, he continued his innovative exploration of sewn and collaged works, liberating canvases from traditional supports blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture.

A solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña titled Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey, opens on 7 November. This ground-breaking presentation delves into themes of ancestry, ecological urgency, and the interconnectedness of humanity, inspired by Vicuña’s discovery of her ancient ties to Ireland and the poetic resonance of her return journey from the Andes to Ireland. Vicuña, whose multidisciplinary practice bridges visual art, poetry, sound, and performance, will transform IMMA’s galleries with a dynamic suite of new works.

Other highlights in 2025 include Staying with the Trouble, an exhibition opening on 2 May of over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time. Staying with the Trouble is inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s germinal work of the same name.

Alongside the exhibition programme live performances will be presented throughout the year in the newly reopened North Wing of IMMA. A new live performance by Isabel Nolan and Belinda Quirke, The Hum of Earth’s Uneven Breath, will take place in the Baroque Chapel on 13 March. Other performances in 2025 include Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born in June, and as part of the Staying with the Trouble exhibition, a series of live performances on 26 July.

IMMA is also proud to announce the 2025 screening programme for Living Canvas at IMMA, a partnership between IMMA and IPUT Real Estate, Dublin’s leading property investment company and supporter of the arts, that brings Europe’s largest digital art screen to the grounds of IMMA. The programme includes a partnership with the RDS Visual Art Awards presenting a specially curated programme by past Visual Art Awards artists. Later in the year screenings will feature work by artists Bruce Conner, Sweat Variant, Clare Langan and Aideen Barry, amongst others, together with partnerships with Dublin International Film Festival and Beta Festival.

This summer IMMA’s popular programme, Summer at IMMA, will return with a vibrant programme of free events, exhibitions, artist performances, screenings, talks, workshops and tours, running from June to August.

EARTH RISING returns to IMMA in 2025 as a vibrant festival of art, ecology, and ideas. Running from 12 to 14 September, alongside the Staying with the Trouble exhibition, the 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. Expect thought-provoking installations, interactive workshops, and inspiring voices that merge creativity with climate action, offering fresh perspectives and a space for collective imagination.