A Bridge Between Times is not merely an exhibition; it is a living archive, a whispered conversation between the past, present, and future of Fort Dunree. Begun in 2023, this body of work emerges from a deep, collaborative engagement with a site poised on the cusp of permanent transformation. As artists rooted in Inishowen, we felt an urgent need to document not just the physicality of the fort, but the intangible layers of memory, identity, and quiet resilience that resonate within its fabric, before they are reshaped by significant investment and a new public narrative.
Please check with Cultúrlann directly about daily opening times.

“Past tense: f r a g m e n t e d” tackles our personal loss of innocence as we transition through life and, inevitably, our inability to reclaim it. It also focuses on the loss of memory as one ages or, in some cases, develops dementia and often reverts to childlike tendencies – this time with a layer of decay as opposed to innocence. While these stages are universal experiences, they can be entirely isolating moments.

LATE NIGHT ART: Thursday 5th March

“Sétanta is a modern retelling of the folk story of Cú Chulainn, the boy hero of Ireland – reframed to trace how masculinity is performed in sport and Irish culture. Between county pride and border blood, we follow Sétanta as he chases a spot on the county team, all while protecting his interior life against the conditions of rural sport, family expectation and communal belonging.”

“Sétanta” is the debut solo-exhibition of Irish artist Ella Garvey at PS2, Belfast, as part of the Pollen Studios Graduate Award 2025. Ella Garvey (b.2003) is a mixed media artist with specialism in print making and research into visual culture.

She is currently studying an MBA at IESA France after graduating from BSOA in 2025.

Opening: Saturday 7 February, 2-4pm
Talk and Q&A session ‘Collecting contemporary art’ at the opening, 2.30-3.30pm

‘The Collectors: Unified Diversity’ brings together four passionate collectors based in Northern Ireland – Neil Harvey, Ian Pitt, Tara Simpson and David Turner. This exhibition presents a curated selection of works from their collections, showcasing their unique voices and collecting journeys. Emerging artists from Northern Ireland – Ian Cumberland, Alana Barton, Jane Rainey among them, are shown alongside internationally renowned artists Banksy, Phil Frost, Barry McGee and other established names.

IT’S NOT CLEAR FROM HERE draws on archival material and lens-based media to explore how images are shaped by time, technology and the act of looking. The exhibition considers the gallery as a space where narratives shift and meaning is continually re-formed. Archives are unearthed and disrupted, environments seep into the gallery space, and obsolete technologies are reanimated. Across photography and film, the works reflect on technological change, environmental crisis and questions of belonging, presenting images as unstable, partial and often elusive.

Exhibition continues from the 4th of December 2025 to the 29th of March 2026.

Each piece in the exhibition involves the artist intervening in some way on a found image. Although collage has long been part of Jeffers’ approach, both the disaster paintings and the intervention works differ from traditional collage: rather than cutting up found material for its colour or specific imagery, Jeffers uses the entirety of the original scene, adding a new element that completely alters the depicted narrative.

The life and work of Barbara Steveni (1928–2020), who described herself as an artist–activist, embodied an archive and pioneered a diffused art practice that resists clear definition.  The importance of Steveni’s role in the Artist Placement Group (APG) was often marginalised by gender-inflected terms such as ‘honorary secretary’, her practice is rarely recognised as having a value in its own right. This exhibition intends to redress this imbalance and encompass her life’s work, drawing together her practice and her experimentation with materials, media and strategies across a career spanning more than seventy years.

IT’S NOT CLEAR FROM HERE draws on archival material and lens-based media to explore how images are shaped by time, technology and the act of looking. The exhibition considers the gallery as a space where narratives shift and meaning is continually re-formed. Archives are unearthed and disrupted, environments seep into the gallery space, and obsolete technologies are reanimated. Across photography and film, the works reflect on technological change, environmental crisis and questions of belonging, presenting images as unstable, partial and often elusive.

A Bridge Between Times is not merely an exhibition; it is a living archive, a whispered conversation between the past, present, and future of Fort Dunree. Begun in 2023, this body of work emerges from a deep, collaborative engagement with a site poised on the cusp of permanent transformation. As artists rooted in Inishowen, we felt an urgent need to document not just the physicality of the fort, but the intangible layers of memory, identity, and quiet resilience that resonate within its fabric, before they are reshaped by significant investment and a new public narrative.
Please check with Cultúrlann directly about daily opening times.

“Past tense: f r a g m e n t e d” tackles our personal loss of innocence as we transition through life and, inevitably, our inability to reclaim it. It also focuses on the loss of memory as one ages or, in some cases, develops dementia and often reverts to childlike tendencies – this time with a layer of decay as opposed to innocence. While these stages are universal experiences, they can be entirely isolating moments.

This exhibition gathers 53 artists from Palestine and its diaspora across time and borders to reimagine the missing works of Maroun Tomb, a Palestinian-Lebanese artist, whose 1947 exhibition in Haifa was lost amid the mass displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians during the Nakba. The works resurrect a moment that was nearly erased until it was discovered in archival documents.

Exhibition continues from 30/01/2026 to 08/11/2026.

To celebrate our 75th anniversary, the Lyric presents this new exhibition that showcases our rich history. A history which includes an art gallery (The New Gallery, 1963–1969), a literary magazine Threshold (1957–1990), a dance centre, a drama school, Belfast’s first music academy, and of course, a theatre.

Click here to view the full programme

Opening: Saturday 7 February, 2-4pm
Talk and Q&A session ‘Collecting contemporary art’ at the opening, 2.30-3.30pm

‘The Collectors: Unified Diversity’ brings together four passionate collectors based in Northern Ireland – Neil Harvey, Ian Pitt, Tara Simpson and David Turner. This exhibition presents a curated selection of works from their collections, showcasing their unique voices and collecting journeys. Emerging artists from Northern Ireland – Ian Cumberland, Alana Barton, Jane Rainey among them, are shown alongside internationally renowned artists Banksy, Phil Frost, Barry McGee and other established names.

An exhibition exchange between Belfast and Boston that looks at how place affects how we see art and each other. The exhibition invites people to think about difference, understanding, and shared experience through prints, collage, animations, drawings, sculptures and videos. Curated by Sam Toabe and Sarah McAvera, it asks if artworks can change meaning when shown in different countries and cultures. The works by artists connected to the University of Massachusetts Boston explore themes such as identity, work, migration, time, and loss. The exhibition encourages open thinking, empathy, and conversation across borders.

Exhibition continues from 14/02/2026 to 02/05/2026.

Crawford Art Gallery and F.E. McWilliam Gallery announce an exciting collaboration on a new exhibition of contemporary Irish art. Constellations: Selected Work from Crawford Art Gallery brings artworks from the Crawford Collection to the F.E. McWilliam Gallery in Northern Ireland. It is an exciting moment for both galleries to collaborate and connect audiences with contemporary Irish art. Featuring the work of 14 artists based on the island of Ireland, Constellations highlights the depth and richness of Crawford Art Gallery’s
contemporary holdings within Ireland’s National Collection.

For this exhibition organised and curated before Richard Croft’s passing last year, the focus is on drawing and how this was used by the artist to sketch, record and develop compositions for paintings and prints. For much of his adult life, drawing was central to his art practice, as can be seen in the numerous sketchbooks kept on an almost daily basis over 70 years.

In this mini-retrospective, a number of drawings with their corresponding paintings and prints are brought together, some for the first time, enabling us to see how the artist explored landscape and still life, often developed through series into abstraction.

Echoes of Yesterday exhibition by Saffron Monk-Smith aims to explore the increasing importance of memory in her life. Her intimate paintings capture a visual diary; places of passing insignificance or of particular importance.

Late Night Opening: WED 4th March from 6 to 8pm

The culmination of Kirsty Bell’s Fellowship at Belfast School of Art.

Running from the 5th – 22nd of March in the Birley Building, York St, Belfast, BT15 1ED

A new exhibition by Hannah McMurray, bringing together carborundum prints and sumi ink drawings. Older works are revisited and disrupted, resisting linear time and allowing gestures to accumulate and overlap.

Ulster University presents ‘The Shapes of Change’, an exhibition bringing together paintings by Joseph McWilliams (1938–2015) and his son Simon McWilliams, two artists whose work captures different moments of transformation in Northern Ireland’s recent history.

Both have strong links to the University: Joseph taught for many years as a lecturer in Fine Art, shaping generations of emerging artists, while Simon studied at Ulster University as an undergraduate before continuing his training at the Royal Academy Schools in London.

Intangible Bodies by Paul Moore opens in the Atypical Gallery from 5 March until 28 April 2026. Artistic Director Edel Murphy is excited to present this new exhibition in response to our Digital Exhibition Open Call. Paul utilises digital technology to explore themes and attitudes to disability in a most sensory way.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 5 March with a Late Night Art opening from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm.
Keep an eye on our social media for news about the artist talk.

LATE NIGHT ART: Thursday 5th March

“Sétanta is a modern retelling of the folk story of Cú Chulainn, the boy hero of Ireland – reframed to trace how masculinity is performed in sport and Irish culture. Between county pride and border blood, we follow Sétanta as he chases a spot on the county team, all while protecting his interior life against the conditions of rural sport, family expectation and communal belonging.”

“Sétanta” is the debut solo-exhibition of Irish artist Ella Garvey at PS2, Belfast, as part of the Pollen Studios Graduate Award 2025. Ella Garvey (b.2003) is a mixed media artist with specialism in print making and research into visual culture.

She is currently studying an MBA at IESA France after graduating from BSOA in 2025.