Event Details
Dates
13/07/2025 – 27/07/2025
Time
Monday - Saturday 10:00 - 17:00
Late opening every Thursday 10:00 - 21:00
Sunday 12:00 - 17:00
Location
Galway Arts Centre | 47 Dominick Street
Ages
All
Event Type
Exhibition,
Additional Info
Opening reception Sunday 13 July at 6pm, followed by afterparty with tunes by special guest artist and designer Margaret O'Connor (Opening reception free, no booking required / Afterparty free, booking required)
Artists talk Monday 14 July at 1pm (free, no booking required)
'ROOTING 4 U' workshop facilitated by Léann Herlihy and Laura O’Connor Thursday 17 July at 6pm (free, booking required)
Guided exhibition tours Thursday 24 July from 6pm (free, no booking required)
Galway Arts Centre presents pass the baton, a collaborative exhibition by artists Laura O’Connor and Léann Herlihy that draws on personal histories of competitive sport and performance to interrogate ideas of identity, nationalism and bodily resilience. O’Connor explores the tension between patriotism and nationalism, influenced by her childhood experiences in a marching band, using durational performance and fragile porcelain structures.
Herlihy’s work centres on collective resistance and queer-led self-defense, rejecting traditional notions of bodily resilience in favour of justice, solidarity and collective care. Together, the artists challenge dominant narratives of strength, highlighting the tensions between endurance and resistance through embodied research, sculpture, installation and performance.
Left: Hands Of Piece, Laura O’connor
Right: With Everything, We’ve Got, Léann Herlihy
* * *
EVENTS
Sun 13 July 6pm – Opening Reception
Free, no booking required
Sun 13 July 8pm – Afterparty with tunes by artist & designer Margaret O’Connor!
Free, booking required HERE
Mon 14 July 1pm – Artists talk and tour with artists Laura O’Connor and Léann Herlihy
Free, no booking required
Thu 17 July 6pm – ROOTING 4 U Workshop (Ages 16+)
Free, booking required HERE
Thu 24 July 6pm – Guided Exhibition tours
Family friendly tour, led by artist Róisín Doherty 6pm (Ages 7+)
Curatorial tour with complimentary refreshments, led by curator Tom McLean 7pm (Ages 16+)
Free, no booking required
More Info
Laura O’Connor is a visual artist and lecturer based in Belfast. Her work explores gendered representations in the media and within cultural narratives through the mediums of performance, sculpture, installation, video and digital media.
Léann Herlihy is an artist, researcher and lecturer based in Dublin. Informed by trans*, queer ecological, feminist and abolitionist theory, their practice makes use of alternative modes of expression through live performance, video, billboards, sculpture, text, workshops and radical pedagogies.
