Excitedly Resting Installation 6 Jun - 1 Aug 2026
We welcome babies from birth to 24 months and their grown-ups to explore Excitedly Resting, an interactive space created by artist Orla Kelly
Excitedly Resting is an immersive, sensory-rich installation inspired by the natural world, taking the form of a soft textile beautiful landscape that young children and their grown-ups to explore together. It was created to be a gentle space that is both stimulating and calm at the same time.
Babies are invited to lie and observe, or explore the different textures, scents and surfaces with the help of their grown-up. Crawlers and toddlers can play and explore, moving under and over different elements.
This installation aims to gently introduce children to art and creative experience from the very beginning of life. Excitedly Resting is a space where art is not something to look at from a distance, but something to move through, touch and feel.
Orla led a series of workshops with babies and their grown-ups to help test elements and inform the design of the space. The development workshops and installation were supported by Cruinniú na nÓg.
About the Artists...
Órla Kelly
Órla Kelly is a visual artist, creative educationalist and arts manager with a specific practice that focuses on working with and for early years children, aiming to stimulate and support the naturally creative, poetic, philosophical and curious intelligences of the young child. She is the founder and director of Early Childhood Creativity, an initiative that promotes creative thinking and activity in early years children and their parents, and supports artists and educationalists to develop specific and creative ways of working with early years children (0-6 years).
Duffy Mooney Sheppard
Duffy is a visual artist, theatre maker and graduate of the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Arts. She weaves curiosity, fantasy, and nature into her workshops and has worked extensively with The Ark and other cultural institutions.