The annual Féile an Phobail Visual Arts Exhibition opens on Wednesday at St Mary’s University College on the Falls Road, with more than 120 individual works on display, organisers have said.

This year’s exhibition is the largest in the festival’s history and, for the first time, has been extended to the Kennedy Centre to accommodate the volume of local art, according to Féile director Kevin Gamble.

The launch at 6pm will include speeches from key exhibitors, including art teacher Mairead Robb, the West Court Camera Club’s project on homelessness and addiction titled ‘Still Somebody’, and the Plastic Bullet Campaign, which is marking its 40th anniversary with a display.

One of the featured artists is West Belfast painter Deirdre Mackel, whose exhibition ‘Playpens’ draws on childhood memories of the conflict. Her work incorporates imagery such as British Army Saracen vehicles alongside toys and 1971 Irish coins, reflecting a child’s perspective of the streetscape during internment.

Micheál Gallagher Sedrowski, lead volunteer for the visual arts programme, described the event as the biggest and best yet, with contributions from amateur and professional artists across Ireland and beyond.

Elsewhere on Wednesday’s Féile programme, former Armagh footballer Oisín McConville is due to speak at the Casement Social Club at 7pm. The event, organised by Gaels le Chéile, will discuss contemporary issues facing GAA members and planning for Irish constitutional change.

The day’s schedule also includes a tour of United Irishmen sites, a lecture on the Easter Rising, and a poetry reading at Friar’s Bush Graveyard.