Bbeyond Anniversary Symposium
Celebrating 50 years of Performance Art in Ireland
When the creative momentum is always pushing us forward it's important to take the time to stop and research what has gone before. Brian Patterson's as yet unpublished research brought to light the fact that November 1975 was the date when Alistair MacLennan took to the streets of Belfast with a group of first year students of Belfast School of Art for five days. One year after Joseph Beuys famous lectures the complexity of the political and conflict environment of the time meant that this was a radical act. In the 50 intervening years a spiritual lineage of knowledge through the work of Rainer Pagel, Alistair MacLennan, ARE, Bbeyond, Array Collective and the arts ecosystem of Belfast the city has benefited from the freedom of thought and expression that performance art can bring.
Glocal Intermissions, our 50 year anniversary, symposium offers an opportunity to gather, share knowledge, performances and to participate in or witness' Unity Walk' our 50 year anniversary performance moving from Belfast School of Art to Alexandra Park in North Belfast. After 50 years Belfast has changed much and artists will always be part of that evolution. Come join us to connect directly into the life of that change.
If you are interested in understanding something more of what the environment was like around 1975, Ulster Museum and Nottingham Trent University has an excellent online oral resource Voice of 1974, link below.
https://www.ulstermuseum.org/digital-exhibitions/voices-74.
Link to Information on accommodation and transport. Visit Belfast | Official Belfast Tourist Information | Trips to Belfast UK | Visit Belfast
Bbeyond Anniversary Symposium November 13-15th
Glocal Intermission.
1975-2025
Please note that purchasing a ticket for EITHER day, Thursday or Friday allows you to attend ANY event on BOTH days
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Date: Thursday 13 November 2025
Location: Belfast School of Art
Time: 5.30pm - TBC
Date: Friday 14 November 2025
Time: 10:00am - 4:00 pm
Location: The Sanctuary Theatre, Mountpottinger Old Church, 1a Castlereagh Street, Belfast, BT5 4NE
Time: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Belfast School of Art
Date: Saturday 15 November 2025
Location: Belfast School of Art - Alexandra Park - Belfast School of Art
Time: 10:00m - 4:00 pm - see schedule for group start times
Followed by optional visit to the Mac and Belfast Market
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Thursday 13 November 2025
Location: Enterprise Hub, Block BA, Ground Floor, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, York Street
5.30 pm Registration+ Merchandise sales
6.00pm Welcome: Bronagh Lawson, Chair Bbeyond
6.05-6.15 pm Welcome : Claire McComish, A few word from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
6.15-7.00 pm Emma Brennan, Zara Lyness & kane stonestreet - Bbeyond New commission artists- how it helps what has happened to our
careers
7.00-7.30 pm Brian Patterson - 50 years of an inner evolutionary process within an outer revolutionary context 1974-2024
Questions
8pm Move to Belfast Stories Building (Bank of Ireland, Royal Avenue/North Street) 15 min walk from BSOA
Location Belfast Stories Building
8.30pm Madison Agnew, Performance
Friday 14th November 2025
1st Location: The Sanctuary Theatre, Mountpottinger Old Church, 1a Castlereagh Street, Belfast, BT5 4NE
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
11.15-11.45 am Brian Connolly, Emma Quin (Catalyst Arts) + Deej Fabyc (Live art Ireland) - Performance art festivals, BIFPA , FIX, Convergence
15 min break
12:00-12.30 pm Siobhan Mullan interviewed by Noelle McAlinden - The Equinox Project
12.30-1:00 pm Dr Pamela Whitaker + Dr Noreen Giffney - Mental Health aspects of performance art
1:00-2:00 pm lunch
2:00-4:00 pm Break out sessions
Break out session 1# - Performance Art Workshop - Facilitated by Sinéad O’Donnell
Break out session 2##- Bronagh Lawson, Frankie Quinn + Alastair MacLennan - Anatomy of a peace line performance
Break out session 3### - Siobhan Mullen with Rainer Pagel, Brian Connolly + Brian Patterson - Performance Memories in the round - this is
a sharing session where participants are invited to share their memories of performance art in Ireland.
KEYNOTE Speakers
2nd Location: Conor Lecture Theatre, Belfast School of Art, 1st Floor, room BA-01-09
6:00-6.15 pm Introduction Dr Eleni Kolliopoulou, University of Peloponnese
6.15-6.45 pm Dr Emma Campbell - Ulster University and Array collective perspective
15 min break
7:00 - Emeritus Professor Alastair MacLennan and Dr Sandra Johnston - Question and answer session
Followed by Emma Quin, Catalyst Arts co-director, with a round up of the evening
Saturday 15th 10 am
Location: Starting at 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)
1:00 pm Return to Belfast School of Art
3:00-4:00 pm Light Refreshments - debrief about the walk and this feedback will added to the exhibition in the lobby
4.15pm Visit to the MAC to see Bbeyond New Commission Artist (2021/22) Niamh Seana Meehan exhibition : SeaSkin exhibition
5pm Walk to open air market at City Hall*
*Christmas market opens at Belfast City Hall from noon 15th November
FRIDAY afternoon Break out sessions
#Break out session 1
Performance art workshop
Facilitated by Sinéad O’Donnell
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, Brian Connolly, Rainer Pagel +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.
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