Solstice Arts Centre

A glimpse into The Future is Open

Step a little closer… these details are just fragments of a much larger conversation unfolding at Solstice Arts Centre this summer. Marking 20 years of the centre, this exhibition gathers an incredible range of artists whose work stretches from the cosmic to the deeply human.

Through film, sculpture, painting, and photography, The Future is Open invites us to consider how we make meaning in a world shaped by accelerating technologies, shifting climates, and imagined realities. Ancient systems of interpretation sit alongside contemporary digital languages; intuition meets algorithm; the personal merges with the planetary.

These close-ups offer a hint of what you can expect when you visit! Plan your visit now!

The Future is Open
📆20 June – 29 August | Tuesday to Saturday
⏰11.00am - 4.00pm
🎫FREE ENTRY



Credits:
1. Isabel Nolan, My atoms are your atom, 2020-21, Water-based oil on canvas.
70 x 90 cm. Courtesy the artist and Kerlin Gallery
2. Rachel Doolin, Evolutions of Uncertainty, 2018, Polyurethane packaging foam, grown crystals, cement, stainless steel.
3. Barbara Knežević, All these half lives, 2026, Steel rebar and jesmonite.
482 (w) x 95 (h) x 15 (d) cm
4. Mark Garry, Piano wire and dried Asparagus fern, 2024
5. Niamh McCann, Rúta / Child God, 2022, Bronze, 90 x 52 x 62 cm. Courtesy the artist and Green on Red Gallery.

📣
👉Box Office Assistant Solstice Arts Centre

🗣Seeking applications for the position of Box Office Assistant. This role would suit someone with a strong interest in the arts and theatre, who enjoys working with the public in a dynamic cultural environment. The successful candidate will play a key role in the efficient day-to-day operation of the box office, ticketing system, gift shop, tourism information area, and daily financial reporting across the box office, café and bar. The role also involves running both daytime and evening events and staff supervision. The position reports directly to the Operations Manager.

📋https://www.performingartsforum.ie/job/box-office-assistant/
⏰Closing Date For Applications 1pm Friday 26 June

With the opening of FIELD NOTES on 25 June fast approaching, anticipation is building for what promises to be a diverse and engaging exhibition.

As part of our countdown, we're introducing the participating artists and sharing a preview of the work visitors can expect to encounter.

Today we feature Theresa King.

In an exploration of the old wall around St Patricks Church on the Hill of Tara Theresa was struck by the beauty of the wall and the symbiotic relationship between the making of it, its material and the local flora and fauna when complete.

Though it is not a completely harmless process, in that the production of lime mortar is fraught with danger, the rest of the process is complementary: the wall serves its purpose and a whole ecology thrives within and around it.

On Saturday, 27 June 2026, three members of ReVerve will be in conversation with Ruth Hogan, creative producer, curator, and writer. This event is free and open to all.
Sponsored by Solstice Arts Centre

Not long now until the opening of FIELD NOTES. We're introducing the artists whose work will be part of this upcoming group exhibition at The Blue Chapel, Kells. during the Hinterland Festival Kells from 25-28 June 2026.

Each artist brings a distinct perspective and approach, contributing to the wider conversation at the heart of the exhibition.

Today we feature Anne Kenna.

Stitched into this work is the red flax thread Anne Kenna used to measure 100,000 steps taken during an experimental art lab at the Swift Cultural Centre, Trim, last January. A dress imagining the loss of a small child, caught in the Cromwellian attack on the Yellow Steeple in 1649, anchors her response to Field Notes.

Developing this work, she walks imaginatively through the landscape of current conflicts, asking: how do we calculate the weight of war? New labels attached to cheap mass-produced blankets—chosen by the artist and delivered by Amazon—call for a material encounter with difficult realities: genocide, displacement, and the human cost of war.

Continuing her focus on what is hidden, forgotten, or silenced, Anne invites the viewer to consider this weight through objects: blankets, a red canvas threaded with grief cloths, the tagged feet of three generations of her family, a child’s toy, a red bag, and an oil can. A chair with a photobook invites you to sit, look, and look again.

Join us on Saturday, 27 June 2026, when three members of ReVerve will be in conversation with Ruth Hogan, creative producer, curator, and writer. This event is free and open to all and is sponsored by Solstice Arts Centre

We're delighted to announce the artists taking part in our In Conversation event as part of FIELD NOTES.

Joining curator Ruth Hogan will be Theresa King, Suella Wynne and Mette Sofie Roche for an informal discussion exploring their practices, the themes of the exhibition, and the ideas that shape their work.

📍 The Blue Chapel, Kells A82 P9D2
📅 27 June, 1.00pm
🎟️ Free admission

We'd love you to join us.

This event is sponsored by Solstice Arts Centre and takes place during the Hinterland Festival Kells

As the opening of FIELD NOTES draws closer, we're highlighting the artists who make up this year's exhibition.

While each artist approaches their work in a unique way, together they create a rich and varied exhibition that reflects the strength of collective practice.

Today we're pleased to introduce Nóilín Shaw.

Nóilín Shaw is an oil painter. She works Plein Eir and from her studio in Co. Meath.

Her work is grounded in an intimate relationship with her local, natural world.

Shaw’s research considers how the visual language of romantic landscape painting can be re-interpreted within a contemporary context. Her paintings are of real worlds re-imagined in a cinematic way.

Her work seeks to foster a critical dialogue about the world we inhabit and share with other plants and living creatures.

On Saturday, 27 June 2026, three members of ReVerve will be in conversation with Ruth Hogan, creative producer, curator, and writer. This event is free and open to all.
Sponsored by Solstice Arts Centre

*EXHIBITION REMINDER*

"The Future is Open" marking the 20th anniversary of Solstice Arts Centre, and its continued commitment to showcasing and commissioning contemporary Irish artists is opening tomorrow!

Featuring:
Bassam Al-Sabah, George Bolster, Alan Butler, Cecilia Danell, Willie Doherty, Rachel Doolin, Mark Garry, Hammerheads (Marie Farrington, Sibyl Montague, Liliane Puthod, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín), Elaine Hoey, Patrick Hough, Bernadette Kiely, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Niamh McCann, Eleanor McCaughey, Lucy McKenna, Isabel Nolan, Barbara Knežević, Emily Waszak, Grace Weir.

Join us for the opening reception Saturday 20 June, 2.30pm with tunes by DJ Moon!

Credits:
1.Alan Butler, Plantationocene, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Green on Red Gallery
2. Elaine Hoey, Parasocial Alchemy, 2026, Sculptural installation with AI language software programme. Courtesy the artist
3. Lucy McKenna, Dimorphos, 2024, Pencil on paper, 21 x 21cm. Courtesy the artist
4. Grace Weir, Time Tries all Things, 2019, Film still, Courtesy the artist
5. Isabel Nolan, My atoms are your atoms, 2020-2021. Courtesy the artist and Kerlin Gallery
6. Patrick Hough, Whalefall, 2023, (film still), Courtesy the artist and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon
7. Niamh McCann, Rúta / Child God, 2022, Bronze. Courtesy the artist and Green on Red Gallery

For more information please visit: solsticeartscentre.ie

FIELD NOTES explores ideas of observation, memory, place, process and encounter through the work of eleven contemporary artists.

As we count down to the exhibition opening, we're sharing a closer look at the artists whose work contributes to this wider conversation.

Today we feature Mette Sofie Roche:

We have become increasingly disconnected from the fibers and processes from which our clothes are fashioned — the linear processes of senseless consumerism, overproduction, waste, pollution and exploitation.

Mette wants to cut through the industrial and make cloth with non-toxic plants and fibers originating in nature. The art emerges from her hands in collaboration with the materials; leaves, nettle yarn, flax yarn, h**p and paper yarn and other organic items. Through experimentation and reinvention, she extends the material flexibility and explores transformation through slow, traditional manual processes like preserving, weaving, knitting, crocheting and stitching.

Putting a further spotlight on the need to preserve and protect our environment she has used organic seed preservers like poppy and maple seed heads and further protects these in glass globes symbolic of the historic way of displaying precious objects.

On Saturday, 27 June 2026, Mette will be one of three members of ReVerve who will be in conversation with Ruth Hogan, creative producer, curator, and writer. This event is free and open to all.
Sponsored by Solstice Arts Centre