Joan Somers Donnelly

Joan Somers Donnelly is a Dublin-based artist. Her practice is collaborative and moves between performance, visual art, writing, research, and organising. Previous work includes a human choir that performed for cows; an interactive fantasy about the politics of housing in Dublin; a video essay about social spaces of gig economy workers; and performances and other invitations for lamp posts, zoom calls, U-bahn stations and apartments. She is primarily concerned with examining existing social structures and creating not-yet-existing ones, using performance and other live situations as a testing ground for experiments in different ways of relating. Much of her recent work has focused on the creation of frameworks for playful exchange and co-creation, such as the group improvisation practice messing, an Anger Club, and an interdisciplinary practice-sharing space for women and genderqueer artists called In practice(s). She is an ensemble member of experimental music and performance group Kirkos and of Outlandish Theatre Platform.

In 2023 Joan was the recipient of a Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland, and she was a 2023/24 artist in residence on the interdisciplinary research project Data Stories at the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute. She is currently worked on HEADSONG / when the world shifts, an improvisation-based performance project in collaboration with participants living with acquired brain injuries, supported by the Arts Council. The work will be presented in November 2025.

Get in touch at joansomersdonnelly@gmail.com or @someradonbelly on Instagram