Embassy of Ireland, The Netherlands / Hamilton Gallery, Sligo / Pulchri Studios, The Hague
CARRYING THE SONGS
Open Call Submission exhibition themed on the poem by Moya Cannon.
About the open call
The Embassy of Ireland, The Netherlands, in collaboration with Hamilton Gallery Sligo and Pulchri Studio, The Hague, invited submissions for an exhibition of new paintings by artists resident either on the island of Ireland or in The Netherlands.
The exhibition is themed on Carrying the Songs a poem by Irish poet Moya Cannon. The poem is a prescient meditation on how music and song can be one of very few things people bring with them when forced from their homes, or to abandon their native country.
Artists were asked to create and submit up to 2 original artworks themed on this poem. The response and resulting exhibition features 288 original artworks which are detailed below.
The exhibition Carrying The Songs is presented at Pulchri Studio, The Hague, The Netherlands from July 4th 2026.
Hamilton Gallery has curated several exhibitions in association with Irish Embassies abroad in recent years, involving hundreds of artists. Previous exhibitions, themed on the lives and work of writers Leland Bardwell, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Eva Gore-Booth have been shown in London, Beijing, Dublin, Berlin and New York. The Gallery curated the exhibition Europe in the Heart of Ireland, featuring work by 100 Irish artists, which launched the Europa Gallery at the new EU Commission Building in Dublin in November 2024. Bloodroot, a Lá Fhéile Bríde exhibition in February 2025, curated by Hamilton Gallery in partnership with The Embassy of Ireland, The Netherlands, featured new paintings by 125 Irish women artists was shown at Pulchri Studios in February 2025.
Carrying the Songs by Moya Cannon
For Triona and Mairéad Ni Dhomhnaill
Those in power write the history, those who suffer write the songs - Frank Harte
It was always those with little else to carry who carried the songs
to Babylon,
to the Mississippi -
some of these last possessed less than nothing
did not own their own bodies
yet, three centuries later,
deep rhythms from Africa,
stowed in their hearts, their bones,
carry the world's songs.
For those who left my county,
girls from Downings and the Rosses
who followed herring boats north to Shetland
gutting the sea's silver as they went
or boys from Ranafast who took the Derry boat,
who slept over a rope in a bothy,
songs were their souls' currency
the pure metal of their hearts,
to be exchanged for other gold,
other songs which rang out true and bright
when flung down
upon the deal boards of their days.
Carrying The Songs - The Exhibition
The exhibition comprises 286 individual artworks. They are presented in alphabetical order based on the artists surname.
About Pulchri Studio - The Hague
About Pulchri Studio
Pulchri Studio is an artists' association and gallery founded in 1847. The name Pulchri is derived from Latin and means ´out of love for the arts´. It is a place where ideas are born and showcased, art is traded, acquittances are made and friendships are forged.
On average there are 60 different exhibitions per year
Carrying the Songs will open at Pulchri Studio, The Hague, Netherlands in July 2026.
The exhibition will also be presented at Hamilton Gallery Sligo.
About Moya Cannon
Moya Cannon is an Irish poet with six previous collections. In 2021 Carcanet published her Collected Poems.
She was born and grew up in Co. Donegal, received a BA in History and Politics from University College, Dublin, and an MPhil in International Relations from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
A recipient of the inaugural Brendan Behan Award and of the O’Shaughnessy Award, she was Heimbold Professor of Irish Studies at Villanova University.
In 2004 Moya Cannon was elected to Áosdána, the affiliation of Irish creative artists.
Carcanet Press
Carrying the Songs has kindly been made available for this event by the publishers Carcanet Press.