Bbeyond Anniversary Symposium
Celebrating 50 years of Performance Art in Ireland
Bbeyond Anniversary Symposium November 13-15th
Glocal Intermission.
1975-2025
All final locations to be confirmed
Thursday 13 November 2025
6:00 pm Registration+ Merchandise sales
6-6.10 pm Welcome : Clare McCormish, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
6.10-6.40 Guest Speaker- TBC
6.40-7.15 pm Brian Patterson - 50 years of an inner revolutionary process within an outer revolutionary context 1974-2024
Time TBC Madison Agnew, Performance
Friday 14th November 2025
10:00 am Registration + Merchandise sales
10.15-10.20 am Welcome :
10.30-11.15 am Bronagh Lawson, Frankie Quinn - Setting the scene, Northern Ireland 1975 some perspectives
11.15-11.30 am Emma Brennan , Zara Lyness - Bbeyond New commission artists- how it helps what has happened to our careers
15 min break
12:00-12.30 pm Brian Connolly, Catalyst co director + Deej Fabyc (Live art Ireland) - Performance art festivals, BIFPA , FIX, Convergence
12.30-1:00 pm Siobhan Mullan , James King - Equinox, Monthly/ weekly open performance art session, (there are now 5 in around Ireland
1:00-2:00 pm lunch
2:00-4:00 pm Location TBC
Break out session 1# - Performance Art Workshop -(Facilitating Performance Artist to be confirmed)
Break out session 2##- Bronagh Lawson, Frankie Quinn + Alistair MacLennan
Anatomy of a peace line performance
Break out session 3### - Rainer Pagel +Brian Patterson Performance Memories in the round
KEYNOTE Speakers
Location: Conor Lecture Theatre, Belfast School of Art, 1st Floor, room BA-01-09
6:00-6.15pm Introduction Dr Eleni Kolliopoulou, University of Peloponnese
6.15-6.45 pm Dr Emma Campbell, Array Collective - Ulster University and Array collective perspective
15 min break
7:00 - Emeritus Professor Alistair MacLennan and Sandra Johnston - Question and answer session
followed by Catalyst Arts co-director with a round up of the evening
Saturday 15th 10 am
Location: Belfast School of Art
10:00 am Unity Walk Group 1 Instructions on Unity Walk anniversary performance(for those who have not done prep workshop)
11:00 am Unity Walk Group 2 Registration of those who have done preparatory workshops
11.15 am Unity Walk Groups 1 and 2 leave Belfast School of Art
Location: Jubilee Avenue Entrance to Alexandra Park
12:00 pm Unity Walk participants and anyone who is interested, meet Jubilee Ave entrance at Alexandra Park for Performance Monthly (duration 1 hour)
Location: Belfast School of Art
1:00 pm Return to Belfast School of Art
3:00 4:00 pm Light Refreshments plus debrief with Noelle McAlinden, Dr Pamela Whittiker + Dr Noreen Giffney - Mental Health aspects of performance art
4.15pm Visit to the MAC to see Bbeyond New Commission Artist (2021/22) Niamh Seana Meehan exhibition : Sea Skin exhibition
5pm Walk to open air market at City Hall*
*Christmas market opens at Belfast City hall from noon 15th November
#Break out session 1
Performance art workshop
Performance artist to be confirmed
Step into the liminal. This workshop invites artists to explore the body as archive, gesture as testimony, and space as collaborator. Through guided improvisation, site-responsive exercises, and collective reflection, participants will unearth personal and communal narratives—tracing the invisible threads between memory, ritual, and resistance.
#Breakout session 2
Anatomy of a Peace-line performance
Bronagh Lawson, Frankie Quinn + Alistair MacLennan
Performance art can bring powerful energy to a site. Bronagh Lawson after working on peace lines* for over 13 years running cross community, cross border development programmes in Belfast from pre ceasefire is particularly interested in performance art and politics. Using performance art as a curator then a practice she will share some experiences and their effect. On the surrounding area.
Working with Frankie Quinn on a new potential performance art interface location in East Belfast they will give an update on the history of the spot in question and how far they have got in gaining permission to share the dynamism of performance art in the site in question. This will be followed by some active performance art exercises with Alistair MacLennan a supporter and encourager of the project.
*A peace line in Belfast refers to one of the many physical barriers—walls, fences, or buffer zones—that were erected to separate predominantly Catholic/nationalist communities from Protestant/unionist ones. These structures emerged during the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly after the 1969 riots, as a way to reduce intercommunal violence. Frankie Quinn has archived large format photographs of peace lines for over 20 years and his photographs feature in the only book about Peacelines Belfast: Toward a City Without Walls By Vicky Cossick published by Coloupoint. Bronagh Lawson’s work Still Bunker features in the book.
# Break out Session 3
Performance memories in the round
Facilitated by Dr Eleni Kolliopoulou, Rainer Pagnel +Brian Patterson
Do you have performance art memories you want to share ? Many artists have spanned the globe on the dimensional gateway that is performance art . This breakout session allows space for sharing and listening to some of the magnitude of experiences and opportunities that this art from has brought to artists and audiences for 50 years. If you want to share of listen this is the breakout session for you.