This workshop welcomes your participation in a collective conversation about values, patterns and choice. Over the likes of tea, seaweed and custard creams participants will identify what are the values that they live by on the domestic scale and discuss how that relates to our shared wider communities on a national scale.

Together participants will use the framework of flags and banners to make ideas visible and imagine futures for ourselves together.

This conversation continues a series of Under The Banner Of gatherings that have explored the visible and hidden patterns that affect our actions as individuals and as communities. The work was initiated in 2016 in response to 1916 commemorations of the founding of Ireland as a republic and a surge in both political polarisation and alienation across the globe. In the midst of currently increasing tension about what the Irish flag stands for, this event offers space to reckon with the state of our values and articulate potential futures.

Bio

Mary Jo Gilligan, (born 1984). Typically site specific and participatory Mary Jo's practice is deeply influenced by interests in community, somatic practice and relational processes. Her work manifests as workshops, live events, installations, writing and publishing that explore how we relate to environments, bodies, architecture, our inner worlds and each other.

Recent work includes Pattern Recognition group show at Riverbank Arts Centre 2025 and Space Crafts project 2024 – 2026, the latter in collaboration with artists Aileen Murphy, Julia Mac Conville and physicist Sadhbh Leahy of DIAS at Dunsink Observatory, funded by Science Foundation Ireland and Fingal Arts Office with support from Superprojects. Upcoming work includes participatory workshop series Through the Looking Tent, 2026 as a member of collaborative collective Soft Blonde Moustache, curated by Superprojects and commissioned by South Dublin County Arts Office. Mary Jo also collaborates intensively with VISUAL Carlow Learning programme since 2022 on projects and workshops such as the weekly gathering Have A Gawk.

Tickets are free but must be booked. They can be booked online, in person or over the phone at Box Office. Wheelchair users and any group over 8 persons should book tickets directly through Box Office. If you book a ticket and cannot attend, please let us know at your earliest convenience so someone else can avail of the ticket. Further Terms and Conditions can be found at visualcarlow.ie/visit/booking-information.