Alison Conneely is an Irish textile artist & designer whose practice is rooted in over two decades of interdisciplinary exploration. Working at the intersection of community, advocacy, and cultural activism, her work frequently unfolds through collaborative processes with leading contemporary artists, scholars, and international institutions, including the United Nations. Conneely’s research-driven approach brings together artistic, social, and academic methodologies, with a sustained commitment to cross-sector engagement and public discourse.

In 2025, she collaborated with Jesse Jones on The White Cave, a major film and installation commissioned for the Singapore Biennale. This followed their 2024 partnership on Mirror Martyr Mirror Moon, the central commission for the National Gallery of Ireland’s Bicentenary programme (BC200).

In 2022, Conneely presented HAIL THEE: We Come in Reveries of Change, a landmark project commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Conceived as a platform for global dialogue on social justice and reproductive rights, the initiative convened an international cohort of artists—Alice Maher, Isabel Nolan, Jesse Jones, Rachel Fallon, Jahanavi Inniss, and Hina Khan—whose practices collectively interrogate embodiment, autonomy, and the politics of care.
The project received critical acclaim and was selected as a keynote event for Design Week 2023. Its accompanying symposium assembled a distinguished panel of cultural leaders and thinkers, including Annie Fletcher (Director, IMMA), Emma Dabiri (author and broadcaster), Roza Farahini (Iranian author and activist), Alice Maher (artist), and Susan McGonagle (UNHCR barrister and Protection Director).

Earlier, in 2016, Conneely was commissioned by the National Museum of Ireland to contribute to the State’s official 1916 Centenary commemorations. Her project, The Shuttle Hive: A Century of Rising Thread, encompassed an exhibition, workshops, a public programme of events, and the major conference Mise Éire? Shaping a Nation through Design. Engaging critically with modernist visual culture, the work examined the entanglements of revolt, myth-making, and national identity—particularly as they relate to women’s cultural and political agency during the struggle for independence.
Developed through a collaborative framework, the project drew on the expertise of anthropologists, historians, composers, silversmiths, weavers, and curators from across the museum’s collections. Through these interdisciplinary dialogues, Conneely articulated a nuanced study of how material culture bears witness to social transformation.

Across her practice, Conneely continues to investigate how art can function as a site of collective memory, civic responsibility, and imaginative resistance. Her work foregrounds the belief that creative practice is both a critical pursuit and an instrument for cultural change.