The Ark's first free visual arts exhibition specifically for babies

This summer welcome babies from birth to 24 months and their grown-ups to explore our 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.

Orla has developed a specific practice that focuses on working with and for early years children. For this project, she led a series of workshops with babies and their grown-ups to help test elements and inform the design of the space, which all led to this beautiful experience, which has been created with support from artist Duffy Mooney Sheppard. The development workshops and installation were supported by Cruinniú na nÓg.

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.

The space also incorporated the practical things a young parent may need such as changing facilities, a quiet space for feeding and more.

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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 is a fully sensory landscape, where scented mounds, felted animals, and woolly sculptures engage the senses. This work aims to support the elements of early development as well as being an engaging artwork and lots of fun!


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.