Array Collective Artist Talk

Presented as part of Collective Knowledges: Galway Arts Centre’s Public Engagement Programme in association with Array Collective’s “The Druthaib’s Ball”

.Array Collective members, Jane Butler and Stephen Millar, discuss their work with Director/Curator Megs Morley.

Array Collective are a group of 11 artists rooted in Belfast who create collaborative actions in response to socio-political issues affecting Northern Ireland. The collective has been working together since 2016, motivated by the growing anger around human rights issues happening at the time. Array Collective reclaim and question traditional identities in the North of Ireland using humour and DIY approaches. They playfully merge performance, protest, ancient mythology, photography, installation and video. They work with a range of other creative people and organisations to create a combination of artistic expression, direct action and public interventions in the city and online. Their work embraces joy and empathy in their art-activist practice and calls attention to our need for one another by joining wider demands for rights.

Array Collective are the first Northern Irish artists to win the prestigious Turner Prize. They were awarded the prize for their work The Druthaib’s Ball, presented in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK, 2021.

Array Collective are: Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell, Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell, Jane Butler, Emma Campbell, Alessia Cargnelli, Mitch Conlon, Clodagh Lavelle, Grace McMurray, Stephen Millar, Laura O’Connor and Thomas Wells.

This event is presented in association with Array Collective’s Turner Prize winning The Druthaib’s Ball,  installed in Galway Arts Centre/ Nuns Island Theatre  throughout August and September, and is part of a weekly series of events with social justice groups, artists, academics, and musicians taking place inside the síbín of The Druthaib’s Ball with talks, workshops, traditional music sessions, dance, storytelling and song.

Galway Arts Centre’s Public Engagement Programme is supported by Creative Ireland and University of Galway.

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