Saturday 14th March 2026
Location: Tea Houses, Bateman Quay, Kilkenny
Tea Houses | 14–21 March 2026

In partnership with Butler Gallery, the Tea Houses presents Reading Room: I Took a Hammer in My Hand, a week-long public reading room curated by Rachel Botha and artist Jan McCullough as part of the artist’s current exhibition, I Took a Hammer in My Hand.

The Tea Houses will feature books from the artist’s collection – including the 1973 ‘Women’s Build-It and Fix-It Handbook’ which the exhibition is named after – alongside maquettes, manuals, zines, films and local publications about woodworking, DIY culture, labour, class, gender and domesticity. Research materials can be perused on a newly commissioned communal table, inspired by the furniture factory and workshop Callaghan & Connolly, once located just metres from the Tea Houses, where Dunnes Stores now stands.

This is a free event and all are welcome to attend, read, and reflect.

Join us for the opening on Saturday 14 March, 11.00–13.00. More information about upcoming events coming soon.

Generously supported by Arts Council Ireland Project Award, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Arts Office and Kilkenny County Council.

Opening Hours:
Tuesday–Saturday: 10.00–17.00
Thursday (Late Night): 10.00–20.00
Sunday: 11.00–17.00

Design by Alex Synge First47. Detail of photographic illustration from ‘Joinery (Teach Yourself Series): A Practical Guide to Woodworking’, by T. O. Howard (1951).
Organisers Website

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