In September 2016, two British Council Collection exhibitions opened in Letterkenny and Sligo in Ireland as part of Perspectives, a programme of visual arts and literature that promotes and celebrates cultural relations between the UK and Ireland. 

The visual arts element of the programme connects four regional art galleries – one from each province in Ireland – to each curate an exhibition from the British Council Collection. The Glebe House and Gallery in Letterkenny, The Model Gallery in Sligo, Limerick City Gallery and the Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda are the partner galleries.

  • Babe Rainbow at The Glebe House and Gallery is an exhibition that takes its name from Sir Peter Blake’s colourful work and the show includes iconic works from the Collection by Sarah Lucas, Barbara Hepworth and others. Babe Rainbow is on view until 31 October.
  • Alongside Babe Rainbow, our touring programme of artists’ film, Moving Pictures, is being screened at the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny on Saturday 8 October.
  • Ghosts of Other Stories, showing at The Model until 27 November, is an exhibition exploring works within the British Council Collection with an elusive, mysterious or ghostly quality. Photographs, sculptures, sound installation and film works by Ed Atkins, Tacita Dean, Ryan Gander, Susan Philipsz and Rachel Whiteread feature in the exhibition. Moving Pictures is on view every day throughout the exhibition, with programme 1 showing at 11am and programme 2 showing at 1pm.

Subsequent exhibitions open at the Highlanes Gallery on 25 November, followed by Limerick City Gallery on 9 February 2017.

As part of this project, each gallery contributes works from their own collections to be exhibited at the exhibition space in British Council’s offices in London from 28 November to 13 January.

Find out more about the British Council in Ireland