The Reason of Towns: An exhibition with architect Valerie Mulvin

Opening on 1 August in John’s Hall, Birr, Co. Offaly before embarking on a national tour across Ireland in 2024 and 2025, The Reason of Towns is a new, engaging and ambitious exhibition of the work of one of Ireland’s most renowned architects, Valerie Mulvin.

Curated, commissioned and produced by the Irish Architecture Foundation and hosted in partnership with local arts and cultural organisations and venues, this exhibition is a public occasion for the telling and retelling of true stories, lost traditions and possible futures for Irish towns and the people who live in them.

Organised around a series of immersive display ‘characters’ intended to engage and communicate to audiences in a variety of ways, the writings and buildings of Mulvin and her practice McCullough Mulvin Architects are exhibited through models, drawings, texts, and a series of slides, notes, personal memorabilia, building fragments and more. Together these reflect just a fraction of three decades of work on the subject of towns, recently gathered and published in Mulvin’s book, Approximate Formality, which was a starting point for this exhibition.

In addition, The Reason of Towns exhibition also presents three newly commissioned films: “The Shape is the Thing” is a spatial-portrait of Clones, Youghal, Dungarvan and Templemore, describing their ‘ordinary-spectacular’ forms; “Of Pride and Place” documents ten optimistic stories of action and change by architects working in towns across Ireland; while, finally, the exhibition will also present a new interview with Valerie Mulvin by broadcaster Vincent Woods, reflecting on her work and the subject of the exhibition.

Initially travelling from Birr to Belmullet, Trim and then Thurles in 2025, The Reason of Towns will be supported in each town with a one-day public engagement programme. Called the Talks of the Town, these events will include walking tours, a community-led workshop and a panel discussion. In this way the exhibition becomes an opportunity for local issues to be aired and discussed in a national context, fostering civic pride and promoting local action.

In 2024, the exhibition runs from 1-11 August in John’s Hall, John’s Mall, Birr, Co. Offaly; 16-30 August in Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Co. Mayo; 12-26 September in Swift Cultural Centre, Trim, Co. Meath, and in January 2025 in The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. The self-guided exhibition is open to members of the public to attend on a drop-in basis.

The Talks of the Town one-day programme will open for registration in advance of each tour stop, and local residents, members of heritage and environmental committees, planners and researchers are encouraged to sign up. Registration for the Talks of the Town in Birr is now open. Visit the Irish Architecture Foundation website to register.