← All events
arts · Friday 18 September 2026 · 6:00pm 
Holding Ground: Oram, O'Connell and O'Hanlon
At Roscommon Arts Centre · Circular Road, Roscommon, Co. Roscommon
At Roscommon Arts Centre · Circular Road, Roscommon, Co. Roscommon
Roscommon Arts Centre marks its 25th anniversary with Holding Ground, a three-artist exhibition opening at 6pm on Friday, 18 September 2026 and running until Saturday, 31 October. The show brings together sculptor Kate Oram from Boyle, painter Marita O’Hanlon and painter Conor O’Connell from Ballaghaderreen, three regional artists working in different mediums around a shared idea: that landscape holds memory, history and lived experience. It is curated by Laura Mahon, director of The Glens Centre in Manorhamilton, who has spent over twenty years curating place-based exhibitions.
Kate Oram works in bronze, steel, stone and other natural processes, and completed her MA at IT Sligo in 2021; her practice folds ideas from forest bathing and ecology directly into how she makes sculpture. Marita O’Hanlon paints in layered oil, working with erosion, memory and transformation, moving between abstraction and recognisable landscape. Conor O’Connell, a 2024 NCAD graduate, paints Irish landscapes as carriers of cultural memory, with a particular focus on crannogs and wetland archaeology as the kind of liminal, half-wild spaces that sit outside everyday use. Seen together, the three practices give very different answers to the same question about what a place holds onto over time. The opening event on 18 September is the best chance to hear the artists and curator talk about the work directly; after that it is open during the centre’s usual hours through to the end of October.
Roscommon Arts Centre is on Circular Road in Roscommon town, a short walk from the town centre and the train station. Roscommon is served by Iarnrod Eireann’s Dublin-Westport/Galway line, and Bus Eireann routes connect the town to Athlone, Galway and Sligo.
The exhibition gives a good reason to build a visit to Roscommon town around more than a passing stop, with the arts centre a short walk from the castle ruins and the town centre. There is more to see in Roscommon and across Co. Roscommon.
Heading to Roscommon Arts Centre in Roscommon? Roscommon has plenty more to see. Read the Roscommon area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.