TO LAND: Living Roots Awaken
23 May – 9 August 2026
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, County Louth

Crawford Art Gallery and Highlanes Gallery proudly present a new strategic touring partnership, To Land: Living Roots Awaken, in collaboration with the Artist-Teacher-Researcher Curatorial Group.

Drawing from the rich collection of Crawford Art Gallery’s contemporary artworks, the exhibition explores how identity is shaped by our relationship with land, history, and memory. We are an island formed by rupture and renewal, rooted in ancient cultures yet continually re-forming in the wake of colonisation. The exhibition conveys the persistence oof history in the present, while themes of displacement and the urge to put down roots resonate quietly throughout the selected artworks.

Bringing together painting, printmaking, textile, drawing, ceramics, and sculpture, the exhibition considers our connection to nature and asks how we relate to the world around us.

To Land: Living Roots Awaken features artworks from Crawford Art Gallery’s collection by Karen Conway, Barrie Cooke, Dorothy Cross, Stephen Doyle, Anthony Haughey, Katie Holten, John Keating, Fiona Kelly, Anne Kiely and Mary Palmer, Elizabeth Magill, Alice Maher, Frieda Meaney, Nuala O’Donovan, and John Rainey. The exhibition also features the work of invited artists Dorota Borowa, Tom Climent, James Hayes, and Ciara O’Connor.

The Artist-Teacher-Researcher (ATR) Curatorial Group are Eileen Brennan, Kieran Gallagher, Bairbre Geraghty, Veronica Lavin, Roisin O’Sullivan, and Ciaran Power.

To Land: Living Roots Awaken opens at 3pm on Saturday 23 May 2026. Admission is free and the exhibition is supported by a programme of talks, tours, and workshops. See www.highlanes.ie for further information.

Crawford Art Gallery wishes to thank Aoife Ruane, Stephen Hodgins, Simon Colfer, and the Highlanes Gallery team.

Featured artworks:

• Karen Conway, Where’s the Map (1997)
• Barrie Cooke, Forest (c.1976)
• Dorothy Cross, Jellyfish Lake (2002)
• Stephen Doyle, Dylan Is Ainm Dom… (2018)
• Anthony Haughey, Famine Eviction Scene, Model World, Newtownmountkennedy (1996)
• Katie Holten, Irish Tree Alphabet (2020)
• John Keating, Girl and Dog (undated)
• John Keating, Girl in Shopping Trolley (undated)
• Fiona Kelly, Homing (2019)
• Anne Kiely and Mary Palmer, Who Will Tell the Bees (2018)
• Elizabeth Magill, Blue Constrictor (2006)
• Alice Maher, Irish Dancers (1992)
• Frieda Meaney, Map: Rabach’s Glen (2002)
• Frieda Meaney, Map Traces (2005)
• Nuala O’Donovan, Teasel – Grey Area (2018)
• John Rainey, Dazzle Disco (legs) (2022)
• John Rainey, Restoration Error Disco (2022)