The Visual Collective are 15 creative young people who have come together to make: make music, make friends, make connections, make stories, make decisions, make mistakes, make art.

On Friday mornings since February 2024 each member has journeyed to explore and participate in the professional world of the arts at VISUAL. This unique work experience programme has ensured that members have encountered the work and career paths of several artists, musicians, theatre directors and curators. Bespoke workshops gave space for making, questioning and reflecting on practice of making art and the role of the arts in our worlds.

The current gallery exhibitions by Eilis O’Connell, Mona Hatoum and Jane Fogarty have been a rich environment for the VISUAL Collective to meet within and have steered their consideration of memories, objects, abstract forms, being alone and being together. Each member brought their unique perspectives and generously shared their ideas to make Mystical Masquerade an exhibition event that brings another layer of insight to these themes by expanding them to include their own personal histories, humour and cultural references.

Mystical Masquerade offers the audience glimpses of the activities shared over 11 workshops: lyric writing, ink drawing, assembling new forms, polaroid photography, performing, identifying core values, bravely standing on the stage, script writing, directing movements, curating images, airing their voices, sculpting clay, remembering, imagining, listening, deciding and sharing. The artefacts of these workshops are presented by the VISUAL Collective as an exhibition for us to encounter and as a masked ball for us to participate in together.

Visual Artist Andy Fitz, Actor, Director and Interdisciplinary Artist Barry Fitzgerald, Curator Benjamin Stafford, Carnival Director and Circus Performer Selene Murphy, Artist and Curator Clare Breen, Theatre Director Janice de Bróithe, Visual Artist Michelle Malone and Songwriter and Musician Tadhg Griffin.