“In 1547, when pope Paul III appointed Michelangelo superintendent of the Fabbrica (the construction) of St. Peter’s, replacing Antonio da Sangallo, the artist could surely not have imagined that he would soon be bereft of his powerful patron and protector. The Farnese pope died on November 10, 1549. Twelve days later, pending the election of a new pope, the committee responsible for overseeing the Fabbrica issued a decree whereby the work at St. Peter’s was to be halted, and the construction site and materials were to be confiscated and locked up.

This obviously implied halting the payment of wages due to all the craftsmen, carpenters and masons who were working on the project. Michelangelo, suddenly finding himself in very straitened circumstances, and also worried about the fate of his collaborators, was forced to seek help from his patrons and friends. One of the people he turned to was Cristoforo Spiriti, bishop of Cesena and future patriarch of Jerusalem.

In a short letter, Michelangelo told Spiriti that his workers had stayed at the Fabbrica “to guard it and defend the construction materials and other things like soldiers, at the peril of their lives,” but since he could not pay them himself, he feared the situation might lead to “damage amounting to thousands of scudi” and would probably cause a “scandal.”

A solution was found after Julius III was elected to the papal throne, on February 7, 1550. On March 13th, the head of the Fabbrica ordered the keys to the site to be returned to Michelangelo, and so they were.”

I was struck by how nothing much changes, if only he had VAI to call on…

Chaired by Laura Graham, issues raised by attendees ranged from a discussion on the present call for comment by DCAL to hear from arts organisations, and presumably individual artists, on their feelings about support for creative industries, to more personal issues to do with accessibility and the lack of understanding of authorities in general to the status of being an artist, whether disabled or otherwise. We also questioned whether the call for comment from DCAL had been sent solely to arts organisations, in which case individual artists should make their voices and concerns heard urgently otherwise the more PR orientated creative industries opinions may hold sway.

The question did arise however, are artists comfortable with being termed as an ‘industry’? Is this the reason that artists are not shouting from the rooftops about what they would like to see change in funding structures? If we don’t enter the debate however, our voices can’t be taken into consideration.

With the opportunity of looking a bit more closely at accessibility issues for artists, prompted by our location, it is apparent that such issues are still keenly felt with a sense of exclusion in this increasingly bureaucratic world. This can range from difficulty in getting through the reams of documentation needed for many applications, benefits, insurance, work schemes, residencies etc, knowledge of the internet and comfort with the on line world to difficult physical issues. It is possible to obtain assistance in these areas and if anyone is in any doubt about their status, or possible funding opportunities, please contact ADF http://www.adf.ie/

It was an interesting and thought provoking discussion and I would like to thank Leo Devlin for organising the event, Chris Ledger CEO for her involvement and the staff of ADF for their support in making this clinic possible.

Laura Graham
Visual Artists Ireland / Northern Contact Point

Visual Arts Clinic with Visual Artists Ireland
Tuesday 8 November (14:30-16.00)

Laura Graham, one of two VAI representatives in Northern Ireland, will chair a clinic at the Arts and Disability Forum in Belfast to support and hear from visual artists in the region.  VAI will be placing greater focus on Northern Ireland in coming months and wants to hear what you have to say. Increasing constraints and difficulties as a result of this depleted economic climate make the present moment important to come together and discuss difficulties.

This is the second of a regular program of clinics across the North which will allow VAI to survey and better address the issues affecting the wide spectrum of artistic practice.

The ADF aims to be fully accessible – BSL etc available – confirm access requests by 4 November please contact: leo@adf.ie

www.adf.ie
T: from UK (028) 9023 9450
T: from RoI (048) 9023 9450

Click here for further info


 


As always, Visual Artists Ireland members can expect their’s to be delivered to their door within the next couple of days.

This service is for Visual Artists Ireland member organisations. To add your site simple enter your details here After entering your details, our staff will check that you are a member.  If not, they will make contact with you to guide you through the membership options.

For people sending listings, if you send your Google co-ordinates, we will endeavour to include them with the listing of your exhibitions.

To find your Google co-ordinates:

1. Open the Google Maps website
2. Enter the address details in the search box
3. Zoom In the Google Maps and locate the place for which you need the latitude and longitude.
4. Right click that exact location on Google Maps and select “Center Map Here”
5. Click the “Link to this Page” hyperlink
6. Copy paste the URL into the field on the form.

For example:

The Google maps link for the Glucksman Gallery in Cork is:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=glucksman+gallery+cork&hl=en&ll=51.895523,-8.489556&spn=0.003476,0.010568&sll=54.576863,-5.943668&sspn=0.006529,0.021136&radius=15000&z=17

This service is for Visual Artists Ireland members. If you are not a professional visual artist, there are other levels of membership that will allow you to avail of this service, and be eligible for other benefits.  If in doubt, call us and we can make sure that you are guided to the right category.

To add your site simple enter your details here

After entering your details, our staff will check that you are a member.  If not, they will make contact with you to guide you through the membership options.

Some simple statistics – 2011

*** Please note that VAI’s website is changing at the moment and although this section is live, we are still in the middle of processing the content of our practical listings for artists to this area ***

Following detailed discussions about partnering, VAI and Artquest are now investigating how to take the wealth of information contained within both organisations to create a cross pollinated information source, supported by a professional development programme that can provide artists with the skills and confidence that they need to survive in the present economic climate.  This project is part of VAI’s 2011 programme which is addressing the widening of support structures so that professional visual artists will feel less isolated.

More about the project later.  Check our twitter account for updates on the meeting.

Check our twitter account for live updates from the event.

The first VAI clinic hosted by Damien Duffy and Laura Graham, our friends in the North, was held on Saturday 4^th June on the Galley. The new restaurant venture by curatorial team Brown &Bri has been described as ‘an ambitious project in shifting a city centre’, and for those who managed to make that shift on Saturday for themselves, there was a chance to see and taste the affordable and ethically sourced food and drink, whilst chatting about concerns in the visual art world.

During the course of the afternoon, topics ranged from how to link into networks, particularly where alternative career pathways have been followed where the benefit of support networks formed through art college are missing, to developing business models encouraging, supporting and benefiting art practice and, why do job centres recognise and offer specialised support for unemployed musicians, but fail to understand the particular needs and difficulties of visual artists, let alone develop specific programmes for them?

We hope to explore these and other questions over the next few months, and start to get answers for our members. But we would like to hear from you and meet you. Our next clinic will be in the North West and will be notified to members and non -members through various social networks nearer the time. On this occasion both Damien and Laura would like to thank Brown & Bri for their hospitality.

The Galley is a lovely venue. Bright and airy with great food and, on Saturday, the views were spectacular, after all where else in Belfast could you stand just above the waters of the Lagan and enjoy a drink, and for some, a smoke!

Laura Graham & Damien Duffy

VAI Northern Contact Points

The semi-finalists have been shortlisted for the big difference they have made with Lottery money, and people in Northern Ireland are being urged to cast a vote, from Tuesday 31 May, to help them make it through to the final.

Details on The Arts Council Northern Ireland website

Preview: Thursday 26 May 2011, 6pm.

The exhibition is a group show by visual artists Diana Caramaschi, Monica Flynn, Colleen Lambe and Susan Thomson, titled ‘The Author of Unusual Papers’.

Following several months of group discussions a body of work is emerging in response to this text, of the same title, by Susan Thomson. In the text Thomson self-reflexively examines her identity as an author and questions whether or not she is the author of the text, using forensic linguistics and stylometry to attempt to answer the question.

Caramaschi, Flynn and Lambe have each used the text as a launching point from which to explore their own concerns researching and exploring, in their own distinctive ways, systems which attempt to analyse identity, meaning and the human psyche. The emerging works, as the title suggests, are predominantly paper based and employ drawing as primal language, visual system and research tool.

www.thelab.ie

To do so, simply follow this link http://visualartists.ie/resources/infopool-2/practical-listings/members-contact-details/members-contact-details-submit-listing/ and enter your details. Items marked with an * are obligatory fields.

As with all public forums, we advise caution on the amount of detail that you provide.

Available to Visual Artists Ireland members only, once you have entered your details, these will be verified and your listing approved. The details will then go live on our website.

In the listing you will be able to feature details of the disciplines in which you work; details of your practice, and contact details.  Your email address will not be displayed, but the site gives viewers the possibility of making contact with you through your profile page.

This is one of many features and new services that we will announce over the coming months, in answer to comments and feedback from our membership.

If you are not a member, or wish to renew your membership, then follow the instructions on our site

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BOICollegeGreen

You have an option to provide personal contact details that will be used only by Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, but these are not obligatory.

6:30 pm – 7:00pm: Fionnuala Doran

7.00pm – 7.30pm: Ciaran Hussey

Sarmen Almond

Sarmen is a Mexican musician, singer and performer. She completed her MA in Sonic Arts leading her to found St’art moveS project, looking for the interdisciplinarity in performance: new media, voice and choreographic theatre. The result of her DAS residency is a performance piece called Hidden Faces, which uses video and audio in relationship to the performance’s topic: violence. A social piece and an exploration in this human – new media field. Hidden Faces will be performed in the Brian Friel Theatre on the 7^th May 2011, 19:45. http://www.wix.com/SarmenFemme/sarmen

Ciaran Hussey

Ciaran’s work revolves around the psychological effects that contemporary capitalist society has placed upon its practitioner and the illusion of freedom & choice that’s scripted by regulators in suits. The development of paper-thin representations dreamed up by advertising agencies and production companies and consumed by capitalist society, has caused a sense of numbified emptiness, repetitiveness, alienation, and a general lack of apathy. We have developed an agitated sense of expectation, as we await some form of salvation, in the guise of commodities, services, fame and celebrity, that will deliver some solace, but instead are left with a niggling dissatisfaction and a constraining feeling of being cheated. Ciaran received a first class honours degree in fine art (printmaking) in 2008 from Limerick School of Art & Design, and a distinction in a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Ulster in 2010.

Fionnuala Doran

For her residency at Digital Arts Studios, Fionnuala has been developing her project for Multiples, a joint initiative between Catalyst Arts and the British Council. She plans to create three separate compilations of comics and drawings, entitled Portmanteau, with each volume being numbered chronologically in the order they are produced. Each publication will have a unique theme tying together the various stories and drawings: Portmanteau 1 will be themed around Venice, the second will be themed around magic.

Volume 1′s short story is inspired by the swashbuckling adventure of Herge’s The Adventures of TinTin and Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The drawings and setting are taken from the extensive archive of photographs compiled by the artist while working in Venice during 2009′s International Biennale of Art. The artist has been developing her digital drawing and illustration skills through the Digital Residency. Fionnuala Doran was born in 1984 in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. She graduated in 2007 with a BA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster and currently works from Flax Art Studios, Belfast. Fionnuala has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, most recently ¿@#!*$, Catalyst Arts and Mainland at the E:Vent Gallery, London.  Her idiosyncratic drawing based practice spans fine art and illustration, and she is currently working with Catalyst Arts and the British Council on Multiples, a retail exhibition and pop-up shop which has so far toured to PS2 and the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast.

All DAS talks are free and open to the public.

For more information please contact the Digital Arts Studios on 02890 312900 or at office@digitalartsstudios.com / http://www.digitalartsstudios.com/talks/

Lots of interesting connections were made and VAI hopes to work further with Visiting Arts in Northern Ireland.

It was great to hear about the progress of Firsty? just six months old with over two hundred members and making a strong impact in Bangor and beyond. It’s always wonderful to see the entheusiasm and energy of artist led groups.

Mary Carty wowed us once again with insights into web based art projects and smart use of social media and Adam Knights discussed his programme of exciting international artists’ exchange projects with Visting Arts, in particular residencies, but also work in UAE and Slovenia.

It was interesting to hear Peter Mutschler reflect on how participation on the European Cultural funded project Rhyzom helped support and add momentum to PS2 work in Ballykinler. That from small acorns of interest and afinity larger international projects and opportunities can grow.

Rhyzom certainly made navigation of the EU Cultural Fund application process seem less daunting when Christian Jankowski outlined the framework of the scheme. It wasl also good to know that as CCP UK Christian can offer advice to organisations developing projects.

It was also lovely to meet Deirdre Robb Visual Arts Officer with the Arts Council, for N.I. the first time, and hear how she brings an artist’s sensibility to her work with the Arts Council.

Maria McKinney‘s presentation echoed some of what Mary Carty discussed later, as she talked about the development of tacit mentorship through residencies that she has participated on.  Maria reflected that as a native of Donegal it is still possible and valuable for her to work in her native county as well as internationally and that an artist’s mobility can involve eliptical movements of outwardness and return.

Underscoring the day was the openness and willingness to share knowlege and experience amongst all the presenters and that ultimately openness had made all of the work discussed possible.

Many thanks to Laura Graham (VAI N.Ireland contact point) for deftly charing the proceedings and to Amy McKelvey at Ards Arts Centre for partnering on another successful event with VAI. We look forward to continued work and creative developments on the Ards Penninsula and to hearing further about the individual connections made on the day. Monica Flynn / Education Officer

If so, you may be interested in a new premium service that VAI now offers.

Each week, the VAI website is updated with the most comprehensive information on what is happening around Ireland in the visual arts. As part of our new services, we are offering organisations with event websites with access to our what’s on in local areas RSS feeds.

The feeds are broken down into the following regions:

• Calendar – What’s On
  • Calendar – What’s On – Connaught
    • Calendar – What’s On – Connaught – Galway
  • Calendar – What’s On – International
  • Calendar – What’s On – Leinster
    • Calendar – What’s On – Leinster – Dublin
  • Calendar – What’s On – Munster
    • Calendar – What’s On – Munster – Cork
    • Calendar – What’s On – Munster – Limerick
  • Calendar – What’s On – Northern Ireland
    • Calendar – What’s On – Northern Ireland – Belfast
  • Calendar – What’s On – Rest of Ulster

If you spend hours updating your website with events, and your website is capable of using RSS feeds, the new VAI service is a simple way for you to provide effective and timely information. For €100 per annum your users will be able to keep up to date on what is going on, and your costs of updating your website will be significantly reduced.

Further details can be had by contacting us on info@visualartists.ie

The new calendar features details on forthcoming deadlines, visual art exhibitions, events, festivals, talks and conferences across Ireland.  The calendar is broken down across regions, and provides details of exhibitions openings and what’s on across Ireland on a day to day basis.

The feature is yet another free service provided by Visual Artists Ireland to increase awareness of the visual arts across Ireland.

Visual Artists Ireland’s information is also available through Twitter (@VisArtsIreland), Facebook (Visual Artists Ireland), an eMailing list, and Newsfeeds so that people can easily find out what is going on around the country.

Free Event

Event Registration Page: http://visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events/

Speakers include: Deirdre Robb / Visual Arts Officer, Arts Council Northern Ireland; Adam Knights / Arts Projects Manager, Visiting Arts U.K; Christoph Jankowski / European Information Manager at Visiting Arts, UK Cultural Contact Point for the European Commission’s Culture programme; Visual artist Maria McKinney, who participated on the Banff Residency; Peter Mutschler / Co-director and curator of PS² project space in Belfast, initiator of urban art projects and Artists involved in the Sustainable Craft Network along with Heather Parker, Craft Development Officer, Ards Borough Council.

The event will be chaired by Laura Graham visual artist and Visual Artists Northern Ireland contact point.

Followed by two elective after lunch talks with Mary Carty, Spoiltchild Design talking about peer networking on the internet for Visual Artists and a contribution from Firstys artists group from Bagor speaking about their development as a group and connection with artists in Northern Ireland, Scotland and beyond.

A Common Room discussion event @ Ards Arts Centre.
Visual Artists Ireland in partnership Ards Arts Centre and Ards Borough Council

Gathering the data has been quite exciting when I realise that over 300 individual artists have taken part in the programme over the last three years, with many attending several workshops in any one year.   A big clap on the back to all our Northern Ireland partners, facilitators and VAI staff who’ve contributed.  Looking forward to feedback from the surveys when they’re complete.

For register for upcoming training sessions see: http://visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events/

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Newtownards, Belfast and Enniskillen

Mobility and Exchange in the Visual and Applied Arts (free event)
Wednesday 11 May, A Common Room discussion event @ Ards Arts Centre
in partnership with Ards Art Centre and Ards Borough Council

With speakers: Deirdre Robb, Arts Development Officer Visual Arts, Arts Council N.Ireland; Maria McKinney, Visual Artist; Adam Knights, Projects Manager, Visiting Arts U.K.; Christoph Jankowski – European Information Manager, European Cultural Contact Point U.K, Peter Mutschler – Director PSquared Belfast.  Chaired by Laura Graham – Visual Artist and Visual Artists Ireland Contact Point East Ulster.

Imagination Box with Jim Russell
Friday 13 May (10.30 – 16.30) @ PlayResource
In partnership with Belfast Exposed and PlayResource

Also

Sustaining your Practice with Rosie Burrows
In partnership with Belfast Exposed. New date tbc

Peer Critique New Media with Saoirse Higgins
In partnership with the Digital Arts Studios.  New date tbc

To book Northern Ireland workshops click on our registration page: http://visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events/

or alternatively contact:

Monica Flynn / Education Officer,
Visual Artists Ireland
T: +353 (0)1 872 2296
E: monica@visualartists.ie

The letters covered: the Tax Exemption Ceiling and a balancing of payments that was dropped from the Finance Bill when amendments were stopped at the end of the last Dáil; the realities of Social Welfare and the professional visual artist; Cultural Sector Staffing Deficits & Cultural Workers Unemployment levels; the legislating of the Drôite de suite and forthcoming obligation for the heirs of artists; as well as developing on an idea put forward by VAI CEO Noel Kelly at a meeting with representatives of the previous government about the creation of a Cultural Sector Partnership – a forum that will allow cultural organisations work closely with the Department in the development of cultural strategies and forming policies for government.

Also a huge thanks to the Cavanacor Gallery in Lifford for the warm welcome and tour of the current exhibition.

Many thanks to Adam Burthom for hosting us and for providing us with information about the facilities available to artists in The Tradesmen’s.  Also to Sinead Aldridge for letting us know about a Philosophy Reading group that she is setting up.

Now hitting the road to Letterkenny.

Also many thanks to Mairead, Aideen and Emer for the cup of tea and briefing about the realities of social welfare.  Their information added to our own research will certainly help us approach government in a meaningful manner.

Today is Sligo, The Trades Man’s club on Castle Street at 2pm to meet with local artists to for an open format discussion about their needs, concerns and the assistance that VAI can offer.

Then its off to Letterkenny.

@ Belfast Exposed, 23 Donegall St, Belfast

The aim of the programme is to help participants develop a range of skills, which will assist them to work as freelance artists. The Research Skills topic will focus on three particular aspects:

§       Identifying funding, training and work opportunities

§       Develop coherent concepts and structuring a proposal

§       Reflexivity and articulating your own research process in terms of both open-ended projects and as part of a reflective review or report.

The programme will be delivered in a friendly lecture/seminar environment. Participants should if possible have some future possibilities or projects in mind. The course will be supported with a further information pack and list of resources and reading for the future. There will be space for discussion and questions.

Dr Chérie Driver trained as a painter at the University of Ulster and received a first class Degree (Honours) in Fine and Applied Art (2000). Cherie was a co-director of Catalyst Arts from 2000-2002 and over the last decade has worked as a fundraiser and administrator for a number of arts organisations in Belfast. She received a Masters in Social Anthropology from Queens University Belfast in 2001 and PhD in in the field of feminist art theory from Ulster in 2005. Since joining the University of Ulster as a researcher in 2005 she has gained considerable research and advanced project management skills and experience. Read more

To register: http://visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events

Tomorrow will an open invitation to visual artists and organisations to come and meet informally in The House Hotel between 11am- 1.30pm.  This is open to anybody who may have questions or comments about Visual Artists Ireland and our work or anything that they feel we may be able to advise on.  It is also an opportunity for us to listen to our members and non-members alike.

A huge thanks to our Western Representative Aideen Barry for setting this up.  We hope to meet many more organisations around the country during these visits.

We will be in The Trades Club, Sligo from 2pm – 4pm on Wednesday 20th April for a similar event, with thanks to Neva Elliot for her sterling work in making this part happen.

(10.00 – 13.30) Fri 15 Apr

@ The Community Arts Forum, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UT

A VAI event in partnership with Belfast Exposed and CAF.

Brokering and building relationships in collaborative arts practice.   With artists Anthony Luvera, Aisling O’Beirn and Sally Young who will discuss their varied approaches to building relationships with groups and communities in their arts practices.

Participants are invited to bring along some food to share with others during the lunch time period after the talks.

Talk by Director Noel Kelly

2.00 Thursday April 14^th in the Lecture Theatre

Limerick School of Art and Design

This talk will be of benefit for all Art and Design Students making the transition into professional practice in Ireland.

Visual Artists Ireland is the all Ireland development and resource body for professional visual artists.

It provides services, facilities and resources for artists, operates an artistic programme and acts as an advocate for the interests of artists.

Resource packs and membership to VAI available on the day

Your qualification is just your first step to becoming a professional artist

BUT, we still get contact that people didn’t know that we were doing something in their area.  For this reason here are some of the ways of keeping in touch with what we are up to:

1. The Visual Artists News Sheet is available around the country, but as a paid member you get it delivered to your door.  This means that you will never miss an edition.  Last year it contained not only news, commentary and exhibitions, but also in excess of €3,750,000 worth of opportunities.
2. The e-bulletin service researches, compiles and distributes 2 – 3 emails per week each containing 30 – 40 items of news, opportunities and listings. There are currently over 8,500 subscribers.  This is an increase from 7,300 in 2009. It is free to subscribe and we receive regular and consistent feedback from artists regarding the value of this service.
3. In addition to our mailing list, this information is disseminated through:
   • Twitter (#visartsireland),
   • Facebook (Visual Artists Ireland & Visual Artists Ireland Professional Development) profiles,
   • our website http://www.visualartists.ie,
   • and The Common Room Social Network for the Visual Arts.

It is good to be able to report that

1. in excess of 8,500 individuals receive the eBulletin,
2. 885 individuals follow our twitter account,
3. 1245 followers of Visual Artists Ireland on Facebook,
4. 299 followers of Visual Artists Ireland Professional Development on Facebook,
5. over 1300 artists are subscribed to The Common Room Social Network for the Visual Arts,
6. and in excess of 700,000 unique visits to our website have taken place in the past 12 months.

We are also physically present throughout the country.  Coming up next week, we will be doing visits in Galway, Sligo, Letterkenny, Donegal, Enniskillen, and Belfast.  This is in addition to the work that our regional reps are undertaking in Galway, Derry, and Belfast.  It is also in addition to the professional development workshops that we are constantly delivering around the country.   We may not be able to get to your specific town, but we always hope that we find central points where a good number of artists can gather conveniently to learn and discuss topics as wide ranging as taxation and accounts to peer critiques or areas of specific interest to professional visual artists.

We do receive calls from some people to say that “VAI is not in our area”.  Our reply is simple… ” We aim to get to as many places as possible.  and so, gather the artists together in your area and tell us your needs…  ”

We also receive calls from artists about workshops.  It is for this very reason that we have so many different ways of getting information out.  So, after you finish reading this missive, have a look at the above list, and find the easiest way for you to keep in contact with what is constantly going on with VAI.