Upcoming Public Events

Unmasking Nature

Unmasking Nature 10 September 2025 Cavan Burren Park, Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark Sensory walking event co-created by a community of cross-border neurodivergent collaborators, led by artist

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Unmasking Nature

Unmasking Nature 10 September 2025 Cavan Burren Park, Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark Sensory walking event co-created by a community of cross-border neurodivergent collaborators, led by artist

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Foram

Foram 10 – 17 November 2024 National Maritime Museum of Ireland We all inhabit a vast, interconnected ecosystem, where every being – no matter how

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An electrifying neon sign featuring a diverse group of abstract figures, each uniquely shaped and glowing in vibrant colours. The figures, representing a diverse range of people, are set against a dark, velvety backdrop, with their light reflecting softly on the floor and curtain behind. To the right, the words 'Our Place' are illuminated in bold, neon letters. Our Place, exhibition image, credit: Daniel Obina Moses, AlanJames Burns, Sinead McCann, Orla Basquille.

Our Place Kerry Exhibition, Kerry County Museum, 20 Sept – 20 Oct 2024

Our Place is a multi-sensory installation that explores themes of happiness, human rights, and belonging. The installation features an immersive sound artwork played through 10 speakers, a vibrant neon artwork, and tactile light artworks. The exhibition features distinct sensory areas with both group and individual seating. Exhibition accessibility additionally includes Lámh sign language video, braille, audio and captioned descriptions.

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Featured News

National Outdoor Recreation Conference, June 2026

Embracing Ireland’s Outdoors

2026 National Outdoor Recreation Conference.

Alan had the pleasure of doing a presentation as part of the ‘Adventure for ALL’ breakout session–talking about why access to nature is so important.

Unmasking Nature at A&E, Accessibility and Environment Film Festival

Join AlanJames Burns at Bristol City Hall from 2:00 – 3:00 on 20 June 2026 for a talk and screening. You are invited to engage with themes such as biodiversity and more-than-human communication (including with plants, animals and inanimate elements) through an inclusive, neurodivergent lens.

 During the event we will celebrate people’s connection to nature through stimming. Stimming, short for ‘self-stimulatory behaviour’, refers to repetitive movements or sounds that people make to help regulate their sensory input, emotions or focus. 

This event is a permission slip to step away from societal systems that cage us. 

Join us, slow down, and touch grass.

Advancing Accessibility in Transport Conference

AlanJames Burns had the opportunity to speak at the Advancing Accessibility in Transport conference hosted by the National Disability Authority’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design in collaboration with Accessible EU.

The ‘Lived Experience’ panel was a converstion with people with disabilities and user-led organisations, focusing on practical barriers, accessibility gaps, and priorities for the future. 

Chaired by Jack Kavanagh; Panelists: Fiona Weldon, Elaine Howley, John Fulham, Kevin Kelly and Gary Kearney.

Our Place at Carlow Arts Festival

Our Place opens at VISUAL, Carlow as part of Carlow Arts Festival!

Experience an immersive sound and light exhibition that playfully explores themes of human rights, happiness and belonging. In collaboration with people supported by Delta Centre, the Our Place team has developed a new installation for VISUAL Carlow, commissioned by Carlow Arts Festival.

Led by artists AlanJames Burns and Sinéad McCann, and co-designers Patrick Fitzgerald and Tony Davis. Created with Composer and Sound Designer Peter Power, and Exhibition Designer Ciara Murnane.

28 May – 30 August 2026

VISUAL, Carlow

‘I Want to Ask a Question’, a Solo Show by David Parnell, Now Open, May 2024

‘I Want To Ask A Question’ by David Parnell is now open at Roscommon Arts Centre, presented in collaboration with Disrupt Disability Arts Festival. Curated by AlanJames Burns, this solo exhibition features David Parnell’s digital, rhythmic poetry created using eye gaze technology, exploring themes of perception, care, and coexistence with the natural world.

Roscommon Arts Centre

11 April – 23 May

AlanJames Burns Announced for Basic Talks, October 2024

AlanJames Burns will speaking as part of the BASIC TALK series for October – on Friday the 4th of October 2024 at the Hugh Lane Gallery

BASIC TALKS is a series of informal talks with leading contemporary practitioners. Curated by Basic Space in partnership with The Hugh Lane, BASIC TALKS is an open platform for lectures, workshops, presentations and performances. Speakers include artists, curators, writers and critics who generate discourse on producing, framing and exhibiting art.

Augmented Body, Altered Mind Opens in Budapest, August 2024

A poster style image for the ‘Phantom Vision’ exhibition at the LAM museum. A yellow background, with purple curved shapes. The poster reads ‘Phantom vision’ ‘New Exhibition’ ‘Light Art Museum’ and in smaller font ‘Undercurrents of Perception’

This month Augmented Body Altered Mind opens as part of ‘Phantom Vision’ at LAM – Light Art Museum, Budapest, until June 2025. This exhibition delves into the hidden layers of human perception, questioning our assumptions about reality.

Making use of cutting-edge advancements in science and technology, “Phantom Vision” presents immersive projections and interactive installations from over 35 international and Hungarian artists, offering insights into brainwave patterns, AI-visualised dreams, and the unseen communication networks within nature. The exhibition renders visible layers of reality beyond the limits of everyday perception.

Augmented Body Altered Mind continues its critical exploration of the intersections between the climate crisis, cognition, and human agency. By engaging with sensory dialogue, the work challenges viewers to reflect on how environmental and technological forces reshape our understanding of both body and mind.

National Launch of ‘Divergently Together’, May 2024

Led by AlanJames Burns in partnership with the Insight Centre at DCU, Divergently Together harnesses STEM technologies to empower disabled and neurodivergent communities in climate action. The initiative supports a just transition while challenging stigma around neurodiversity and disability.

Divergently Together is a Creative Ireland Climate Action project that explores the intersection of disability and the climate emergency across Cavan and Fermanagh. Over the next two years, it invites groups with lived experience of disability, alongside climate change stakeholders, to engage, learn, and collaborate on Disability and Climate Action.

The inaugural Disrupt Disability Arts Festival Gets Underway, March 2024

Banner for the Disrupt Disability Arts Festival. The festival logo, a large ‘D’, sits on a black background. In the top right and bottom left corners, there are wavy pink lines in bright cerise. Behind them are blurred lines of the same colour giving the impression of motion.

Disrupt Disability Arts Festival is a vibrant celebration of disability art, curated by and for the disability community.

The festival includes theatre, dance, literature-based performance and visual arts, all delivered through a range of accessible formats in relaxed spaces. This unique festival is designed to deepen the understanding of and appreciation for the richness of experiences and perspectives that define disability in Ireland. Disrupt Disability Arts Festival actively dismantles barriers to artistic engagement, faced by both artists and audiences with lived experience of disability.

 

Disability Arts Online Content Takeover, February 2024

The Disability Arts Online Logo. A white square on a background of black brush strokes. The words ‘Disability Arts Online’ sit at the bottom of the white square.

This month AlanJames Burns has been invited to do a Content Takeover for Disability Arts Online. The takeover will explore the intersections of disability, climate change and the arts.

The first piece of content is a very exciting one, a podcast for ‘Disability Add…’. Alan spoke with Professor Julia Watts Belser who is a professor of Jewish Studies and Disability Studies at Georgetown University and coordinator of the Disability and Climate Change Public Archive. They discuss thier experiences as creative practitioners, members of the disability community, and concerned climate activists.

The podcast will be followed by pieces for the DAO magazine and a week-long takeover of DAO’s Instagram account this February.

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