© Joe Laverty / Belfast Photo Festival.
REACH’25
Queen’s University Arts and Sustainability Festival
Belfast Photo Festival is collaborating with ‘Reach 2025: Festival of Arts and Sustainability at Queen’s University’ on a number of public events and the public exhibition of ‘Shallow Waters’ by Joe Laverty. 'Reach'25' returns with a bumper 4 day programme of events taking place all across the University campus. The festival is open to university staff, students and members of the public and features events suitable for all ages and will explore the interface of sustainability and art.
© Queen’s University Belfast.
Éacht Loch nEathach - Lough Neagh Lament
Date: 2 April 2025
Location: CaptureLab, University Square Mews
Times: 1:00pm - 2:15pm
Performance and Panel discussion on Lough Neagh - an immersive audiovisual piece that documents HIVE Choir's site-specific performance at Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles and a site of recent ecological controversy. The performance will be followed by a panel discussion titled, 'Lough Neagh - what to do?' and will hear from John D'Arcy, Joe Laverty, Shannon McLaughlin and Ingrid Hess.
© Queen’s University Belfast.
Reach '25: Festival Launch and Exhibition
Date: 2 April 2025
Location: Naughton Gallery
Times: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
'Shallow Waters' by Joe Laverty aims to investigate the way myth and tradition sit alongside heavy industry and how closely connected they are, despite being at odds with each other. Through a photographic investigation of the landscape, its people and traditions, Laverty charts a thread of connection between the two opposing engagements with the shallow waters of Lough Neagh, as it negotiates multiple threats and regulatory negligence.
No Booking Required.
© Queen’s University Belfast.
Reach '25: Arts Power
Date: 4 April 2025
Location: Seamus Heaney Centre (Wolfson Lecture Theatre)
Times: 9:30am - 3:45pm
Join us for an excellent schedule of sustainability talks focusing on what the arts and cultural sectors are doing to reach and engage more people on sustainability issues.
Including at 10:10am, “Visualising Northern Ireland’s Natural Heritage” by Toby Smith, Director of Development at Belfast Photo Festival.
© Joe Laverty / Belfast Photo Festival.
Reach '25: Art in the AM
Date: 5 April 2025
Location: Naughton Gallery
Times: 9:30am - 10:30am
Start your day with Art in the A.M. at the Naughton Gallery. Join the gallery team alongside artists Aidan Koch and Joe Laverty for a guided tour of their new exhibitions.
The event begins in the Naughton Gallery, where Koch will discuss the inspiration behind her latest two-person exhibition. With a background in graphic narrative and comics, her work explores ecological storytelling—examining how changes to ecosystems and environmental destruction shape collective experiences of catastrophe and uninhabitability.
Visitors will then move to the University’s quadrangle to view ‘Shallow Waters’, Joe Laverty’s outdoor exhibition presented in collaboration with Belfast Photo Festival. Through photography, Laverty investigates the landscapes, people, and traditions surrounding Lough Neagh, revealing a delicate balance between human engagement and the lake’s ongoing battle against pollution and neglect.
Please register your attendance by emailing art@qub.ac.uk.
