Free shows at Butler Gallery during Kilkenny Arts Festival

Make sure to experience some great screenings and exhibitions at Butler Gallery during Kilkenny Arts Festival which runs until August 15.

Located in the beautifully refurbished Evans’ Home, the historic grounds of the gallery’s  new setting provide a wonderful opportunity for families to enjoy the site’s rich history  and natural heritage.  

Butler Gallery’s lovely walled garden includes a sculpture garden and information on the  site's fascinating history, making Butler Gallery a must for art, history and nature-buffs  alike!  

Don’t forget you can also relax in MUSE coffee + food, a family-run café, with both glass pod and outdoor seating, which offers delicious lunch and brunch options, specialty  coffees and a selection of mouth-watering sweet treats. All shows are free-of-charge but  must be booked in advance on butlergallery.ie. See below for more details on what’s  on.   

Incoming, Richard Mosse | Duration of Festival | Main Gallery  

Kilkenny-born artist Richard Mosse’s new video installation Incoming was made in response  to the ongoing migration crisis in the Mediterranean. In creating it, Mosse employed a  highly specialised surveillance camera designed for military use which captures images by  detecting thermal radiation, including the heat of a human body, from more than eighteen  miles away.  

Invitation to a Journey | 7th -11th Aug | Digital Gallery  

Invitation to a Journey is a new film installation inspired by the inimitable Irish modernist  designer Eileen Gray. Through impressionistic and lyrical imagery, architectural shapes and  form, filmmaker Eoin Heaney evokes Gray’s sensibilities, her excitements and successes,  and the emotional fallout of strained relationships. 

Accompanied by a powerful, evocative score composed by Deirdre Gribbin and performed  by Crash Ensemble, Invitation to a Journey is an evocative exploration of the life and work  of one of Ireland’s greatest designers.  

Reactions | 13th-15th Aug | Digital Gallery  

The ever-innovative Crash Ensemble presents [Reactions], an exciting series of film  installations presenting brand-new works by leading Irish composers. In 2020, at the onset  of the global pandemic, Crash Ensemble commissioned nine composers – from a range of  musical backgrounds – to write new works offering a personal or political response to their  experience of the pandemic, the state of the nation, and their thoughts for the future.  

As they worked, the composers documented the process of creation, and the  resulting images and text were woven into the films by Laura Sheeran, Crash’s resident  filmmaker.  

Blaise Smith - Village People | 12th - 14th Aug | Butler Gallery Garden &  Online 

(11am – 1pm; 2pm - 4pm)  

In his ambitious ongoing project, Village People, the celebrated portrait artist Blaise Smith  has set out to capture life in contemporary Ireland by painting portraits of the people with  whom he literally shares common ground in the tiny village of Dungarvan in Co. Kilkenny.  

With sittings live-streamed throughout the Festival from the gardens of Butler  Gallery, Village People offers viewers a window on a master at work: an opportunity to  witness the creation of a likeness and the forging of intimate bonds between painter and  sitter. Join Blaise online every day throughout the festival at www.kilkennyarts.ie/ programme/blaise-smith 

Our Stories through Objects | Duration of Festival | Learning Centre Corridor + Online  

Butler Gallery in collaboration with the Fr McGrath Family Resource Centre and Kilkenny  Adult Learning Service, part of Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board, present  a project in which people who have migrated or had to seek refugee status in Ireland tell  their stories through personal objects. We hope the stories linked to the objects you see in  this exhibition prompt reflection about what it means to leave the place you called 'home'  and create new lives in other places. 

Permanent Collection + O'Malley Collection | Collection Galleries  

Our first exhibition of our Permanent Collection in our new home revisits beloved  favourites, showcases new acquisitions, and introduces new long-term loans. This   selection reflects the broad character of the Collection itself and embraces a variety of  genres from painting, drawing and printmaking, to photography and media works.  

The O’Malley Collection consists of artworks by Callan-born artist, Tony O’Malley and a  selection of work by his wife Jane O’Malley all generously donated by Jane to the Butler  Gallery. This first hanging of the O’Malley Collection includes early works on paper based  on the life and landscape of Tony’s beloved Callan along with a range of paintings and  sculptural constructions that reflect the range and richness of the artist’s career.