Open Day 2025

Co-curating thoughtful, concept-led gatherings, Tawla is more than just food. Founded by Sula, she transforms the space into a cosy, conversation-filled dining experience, where origin stories are shared, and Middle Eastern dishes bring everyone together.

It’s not just about the food — it’s about connection, care, and community.

Han Tiernan will present ‘Foul, Filthy, Stinkin‘, Muck’, a short presentation exploring the origins of the Project Arts Centre and its early days of LGBTQ+ theatre.

Maryam Madani combines wheelchair dancing with spoken word and song to tell a personal and universal story of the struggle of the spirit to survive and soar in a world full of oppressive forces, a world not designed for disabled people; the power of familial support and sisterhood; and the journey towards healing, disability pride and liberation. 

A dancer with Kate Wilson’s Undercurrent Dance Company based in Leitrim, she practices Authentic Movement, an improvised, therapeutic form of dance. 

Featuring new music from the EP “What Else is There?” by Danny Forde “Everything The Light Touches” and a guest performance with her sister Tasneem Madani.  

MY CITY TOO is a zine dedicated to the artistic responses of immigrant artists to far-right violence created and distributed by ArinolaTheatre. 

The zine was launched at the Project Arts Centre in June and has sold 100+ digital and physical copies. This zine is packed with poems, artwork, short stories, prose and music by people from immigrant communities, a lot of the work inspired by the rise in recent far-right violence and anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland.  

The zine will be available for purchase, and there will be a brief talk on why it exists and how you can support artists of colour in Dublin, as well as a few readings from the zine.  

WeAreGriot is a collective of Irish poets, storytellers, performers and playwrights dedicated to celebrating the power of creative expression. Drawing inspiration from the West African griot tradition, WeAreGriot amplifies voices from diverse backgrounds, using poetry and performance to explore contemporary issues, foster community, and push the boundaries of artistic expression. Through performances, workshops, and collaborations, the collective creates art that entertains, educates, encourages dialogue, challenges societal norms, and inspires audiences to reflect on Ireland and the world at large. 

IBILE is a modern West African dining experience that honours tradition while embracing innovation. Rooted in cultural integrity, community, and craftsmanship, we celebrate the region’s rich flavours and stories through bold food, art, and hospitality inviting guests to connect with the vibrancy of Africa in every bite. Our name, meaning “traditional” or “of the soil” in Yoruba, reflects our commitment to honouring heritage while innovating with flavour, presentation, and storytelling. We champion the rich culinary diversity of West Africa, blending authentic techniques with creative flair to spark curiosity and connection. 

Come shake loose with DJ BLCKCNS, founder of The Sweet Spot Social. Sweet Spot Socials are a chance for you to release some stress from this wild ride we call life. Come through and unwind after the grind — you deserve it! Let loose, shake rump & maybe make a new friend.

Awenwoven is a contemporary dance collective led by artist and choreographer Josué Reis. Their work merges Afro-diasporic street dance forms – including Krump, Funk (Passinho), and Pagode – with the depth and abstraction of contemporary performance and dance theatre. 

Crystal Queer Club is a Dublin-based collective and event series celebrating diversity, inclusion, and the power of electronic dance music. Founded in 2023, the project champions queer culture and community. More than just a party, Crystal Queer Club is a vibrant platform for emerging LGBTQIAPN+ artists, a safe space for self-expression, and a driving force in Ireland’s queer music scene. 

Rebellious Hope is a deeply personal and quietly urgent dance film, created by choreographer Philip Connaughton in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Luca Truffarelli and Tony-nominated, multi-disciplinary composer Mel Mercier. At its heart is a remarkable ensemble of internationally celebrated dancers: John Scott, Fearghus O’Conchuir, Amy Swanson Salmon, Jonathan Mitchell, Magali Caillet Gajan, Ashley Chen, and Joanna Banks. 

The City Gents
This project tells the remarkable story of a jazz band based in Ireland that has been performing together since the 1970s. What makes their journey so special is not only their enduring passion for music, but also the fact that the band is still active today — with all members now in their 80s.

Sunflower
The journey of Maylla, an international student in Ireland. Trying to make a new life in another country and learn a new language, she faces a health problem that changes her life and her journey. Even though she has her challenges in life, she continues to radiate her enthusiasm and happiness like a sunflower, reflecting the sunlight that warms our souls.

Roll 1: What Am I Looking At?
A film about a young woman wondering in Galway city with an analogue camera and lots of intrusive thoughts.

THE LOST PROLOGUE.
An ode to the lost words of Irish Theatre. The missing monologues, the slashed soliloquys and the dumped dialogue that never had their hour in the sun. Breadline explore and expand on a prologue that never made it into their St. Mary’s Mansions Trilogy.

Gráinnemir Abualrob is a Palestinian Queer Actor, educator based in Dublin. They are graduates of The Freedom Theatre (TFT) in Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine, where they studied Theatre and Cultural Resistance for four years. They are bringing their 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙥 to the Open Day – which combines physical theatre techniques, storytelling, writing, and cultural resistance. This workshop explores the importance of using cultural resistance in arts in Palestine and how it can be used here in Ireland 🇵🇸

Who Are We Now, Together? is a short film depicting the work of LGBTQ+ community group Out South-Central and arts worker Hannah Scrine. The film reflects on how LGBTQ+ communities are mis/represented in arts projects and how to avoid using queers as decoration. We dive into this by discussing our own recent process of creating a performance piece, Where Are We Now, Together?, and how it developed from January-June of this year. The film includes original texts from the group, responses to past misrepresentation and a guideline for how artists and project facilitators can avoid tokenising difference, and instead work truthfully and carefully with similar groups and identities. 

NeuroGamers Ireland, formed in 2023, is an unincorporated association that provides a safe, inclusive space for people with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia etc to play board games and meet people. Through bi-weekly meetups at Third Space, Smithfield, we also use the opportunity to open the world of board gaming to people, whether through showing them different genres of games or showing them something they have liked previously with a different spin along with promoting game publishers and designers who you might not see the games for at other board game meetups. 

In her new experimental moving image work The Glass Booth / An Both Gloine, artist Jenny Brady casts a cinematic gaze on the figure of the interpreter, exploring the interpreting profession and the contemporary landscape of interpretation. Through vignettes set in both extreme and familiar environments, the film portrays the processes of listening, speaking, and forgetting within acts of formal and informal interpretation.