National Sculpture Factory

Allow to Fallow, Allow to Fall Low

NSF artist Fiona Kelly's PhD exhibition at the Luan Gallery - opening reception on Saturday 12th of September at 3pm

Centering on the concept of fallowness, the exhibition considers the value of stillness as both a method and a form of resistance, questioning expectations of constant artistic production in an age defined by urgency. It explores how spaces of pause and contemplation might be reintroduced within contemporary practice, foregrounding the potential of strategic dormancy as a generative condition.

Working across a mixed media installation encompassing sculpture, print, and video, Kelly examines the theorem of fallowness through three distinct yet interconnected sites: the Long Hill Esker—an ancient landform shaped during the last Ice Age; GannonEco, a waste-repurposing plant operating within a disused quarry along the razed esker complex; and the artist’s studio. Together, these sites trace a movement between geological time, industrial intervention, and intimate creative space, positioning fallowness as a condition that operates across ecological, material, and artistic registers.

Friday 18th September | 5pm - 8pm
For Culture Night 2026, NSF invites visitors to explore its historic building and discover its contribution to Cork’s vibrant visual arts community.

Cork City Council Cork Arts

Opening this Friday 28th August at The Linenhall, Castlebar

A Syndicate*
by A. Hunt

Drawing on an artistic inquiry of expansive relational frameworks, A. Hunt’s practice unpacks questions of proximity, attention, and support from both an infrastructural and embodied vantage point. Traversing Sculpture, Installation, and Live Art, this work abstractly rehearses ‘togethering’ beyond Hegemonic (Capitalist and Heteronormative) organizational agendas, both from a researched and lived point of view in the artist’s life.

Our final Heritage Day tour starts at 3, you've still got time to visit

Heritage Week Cork Heritage Open Day

We're nearly ready for you!

Cork Heritage Open Day
Saturday 15th August
12 noon - 4:00pm

Heritage Day is a wonderful celebration of Cork’s built heritage. In its 21st year, Cork Heritage Open Day provides the exciting opportunity to meet some artists and see where they work within this unique artists’ work place.

National Sculpture Factory was set up 37 years ago and is a thriving artists’ resource for many creative projects. An important facility locally, nationally and internationally, NSF is a strategically funded resource for artists, with the Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council as primary funders.
NSF building, which used to house the trams of Cork City, is a beautiful red brick heritage building which enables large scale sculpture to be fabricated – what the citizen sees in the public realm of scale and ambition can be made in NSF under the high roof of the former tram warehouse. The legacy of Cork’s built heritage continues to be enjoyed and critical for creating Cork’s cultural heritage.

NSF are delighted to invite you to visit NSF facilities and artists to see how the art works you know come into being and learn more about the creative process directly from the source. Join us between 12pm to 4pm to meet the artists, discover where they work and find out more about their practice – find out what goes on in the large red brick warehouse on Albert Road.

Guided Tours will take place every hour starting at 12pm through 3pm (last tour 3pm). No booking necessary. For Health & Safety reasons, under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Heritage Week Cork Heritage Open Day

Cork Heritage Open Day
Saturday 15th August

Tom dePaor designed and built the mezzanine extension in the National Sculpture Factory in
1999/2000; now an award-winning structure in the history of Cork architecture.
The mezz was thoughtfully designed to provide a necessary clean space for meetings, research, kitchen spaceand a technical office, leading to the familiar leaded steel clad inhabitable beam we can see suspended above the Factory floor today. Simplicity of form and process transforms this ‘craft’ like, utilitarian platform into a sculptural tour-de-force, which does not compromise the flexibility of the floor beneath or the walls above.

NSF are delighted to invite you to visit NSF facilities and artists to see how the art works you know come into being and learn more about the creative process directly from the source. Join us between 12pm to 4pm to meet the artists, discover where they work and find out more about their practice – find out what goes on in the large red brick warehouse on Albert Road.

Guided Tours will take place every hour starting at 12pm through 3pm (last tour 3pm). No booking necessary. For Health & Safety reasons, under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Cork Heritage Open Day Heritage Week

Today we're taking a look inside the Power House, operated by Cork Electric Lighting and Tramway Company long before the formation of NSF.
The building itself was nearly destroyed in November 1922 - ten armed Anti-Treaty IRA Volunteers broke into the Power House, and after locking the staff in a small room they set about destroying the generators with sledgehammers. The sudden darkness was so extensive across the city that priests suspended hearing confession in certain churches. Once the National Army troops arrived at the power plant, they freed the engineer and other staff who quickly got to work to fix the generators. Had the damaged machinery been allowed to run for any time afterwards, an explosion would have taken place, bringing the centre building to ruins.

Many thanks to our past board member Cllr. Kieran McCarthy & Technical Manager Rónán Ó’Caoimh for the research behind these words. Photos from The Street Railway Review (1899)

Cork Heritage Open Day Heritage Week