Pass the Baton, a collaborative exhibition by artists Laura O’Connor and Léann Herlihy running at Galway Arts Centre for this year’s Arts Festival, draws on their experiences of competitive sport and performance to explore ideas of identity, nationalism and bodily resilience.

It will open this Sunday, July 13, at 6pm in the Arts Centre on the City’s Dominick Street, and will run until July 27.

Laura O’Connor uses performance and fragile porcelain structures to explore the tension between patriotism and nationalism. Her work is influenced by her childhood experience of being in a marching band.

Léann Herlihy’s work centres on collective resistance and queer-led self-defence, rejecting traditional notions of bodily resilience in favour of justice, solidarity and collective care.

Their aim is to challenge dominant narratives of strength, highlighting the tensions between endurance and resistance.

Next Monday, July 14, the artists will give a free talk and tour of the gallery at 1pm. No booking is required.

On, Thursday, July 17, a workshop, title Rooting 4 U will run from 6-7.30pm, facilitated by Léann and Laura, focusing on the transformative potential of collective support. It’s open to people aged 16 and older.

There will be two guided tours on Thursday, July 24. The first from 6-7pm, will be led by artist Róisín Doherty. It will be followed by a curatorial tour from Tom McLean, with complimentary refreshments. That’s from 7-8pm.

More information at www.galwayartscentre.ie.

Meanwhile, the transience of life and the interconnectedness between people and the Earth are explored in This Too will Pass, a group exhibition running at Interface Inagh in Recess. Also part of this year’s Arts Festival, it features Thomas Brezing, Luke Casserly, Ceara Conway, Naomi Draper, Aisling Dunne Darran McGlynn, Katherine Sankey and English artist Richard Long, whose work of the same name inspired the show’s title.

Richard Long’s work is rooted in nature and his experience of making solitary walks, from which he creates art. A Turner Prize-winner, he was born in 1946, and is one of a group of artists who expanded the notion of sculpture beyond traditional materials and methods.

This Too Will Pass explores the cycles of transformation in nature, emphasising the environment’s fragility and its resilience.

The show aims to encourage people to reflect on sustainability, adapting to nature’s rhythms and taking urgent action to address environmental challenges.

Interface Inagh, located in a former salmon hatchery in the Inagh Valley, is a studio and residency programme for visual artists, dancers, writers and musicians.

It provides artists with opportunities to explore the intersections between scientific research and art in an extraordinary environment. Much of the programming is based around ecological concerns.

This show has been curated by Italian curator and art historian Valeria Ceregini, who is now based in Ireland.

There will be several talk and events during the two weeks of the festival.

Distillation by Luke Casserly will run at 2pm this Saturday and Sunday, with tickets available on Eventbrite. It’s a performance in which he will use scent to bring viewers into a bog landscape.

Ceara Conway’s Incant, also ticketed, will be at 2pm on Sunday, July 20. This visual and vocal performance will involve new songs and new arrangements of traditional pieces as she explores themes of environment, language and loss. Ceara will be joined by Matthew Nolan on electric guitar and synth, and Lisa Dowdall on violin and viola d’amore.

More information at www.     interfaceinagh.com.

Back in the city, Patryk Gizicki’s Stay Forever More at the Outset Gallery in the Cornstore is a semi-fictional, reflective photographic series that explores themes of home, belonging and coming of age.

For his festival show, Patryk draws on personal experience to reconstruct and confront his memories of growing up in Castlebar where he spent his childhood and adolescence.

Through images that evoke feelings of transition and in-between states, Stay Forever More reflects on the complexities of settling in, identity, and belonging.

Patryk, who is now based in Dublin, explores identity, migration and belonging in his art. His work is shaped by his Polish heritage and upbringing in the West of Ireland.

Recent exhibitions include Talents 2024 at Photo Museum Ireland; Ireland’s Eye at ISA Art Gallery, Jakarta, and the RHA’s 2025 annual exhibition in Dublin, where he won the Emerging Photographic Artist Award.

The launch this Saturday will coincide with the Outset Gallery’s third anniversary – it opened in July 2022.

There will be a day of celebrations from 3pm-9pm with live music and refreshments.

Doors open at 3pm and people can book free tickets in advance by going to www.evenbrite.ie.

Pictured: This Too will Pass by Richard Long, has inspired the show at Interface Inagh in Recess.