Members
Our Members Area gives information on how to join VAI, the benefits, as well as access to your Membership account, including renewals, members’ galleries, webinars archive, and access to our discount scheme and discounted members’ events.
Resources
Our Resource section is full of helpful advice on the wide range of topics that constitute an artist’s career and practice. As well as information on best practice, we offer details on our advocacy areas and guides, as well as an online Payments Calculator.
Publications
Our publications section includes subscribing to our weekly eBulletins, as well as information on our bi-monthly Visual Artists News Sheet, our online archive, and how to advertise in the eBulletin and The Visual Artists News Sheet.
Visual Artists Ireland
Vision: We dare to dream of a time when visual artists will live in a world of opportunities.
Mission: Our Mission is to create a trusted space where visual artists are valued and have access to supports and knowledge that enable them to develop at all stages of their professional career.
COVID-19 VAI Status
Our physical offices are closed in Dublin and Belfast, but we are continuing to delivery our Advocacy, Advice, Lifelong Learning, and Information Provision online, by email, or in the case of the Visual Artists News Sheet either online or delivered by post to all members.
Our mainline number can be used to make contact as normal, and all of our email addresses and online forms are still being monitored and responded too. We recommend compliance at all times to Government advice and continue to be the voice of artists to the government and funding bodies during this time. You can find out more about our online events in the VAI Events section, and through the eBulletins which are still operating twice weekly. We are delivering regular networking and information events as part of our wider learning and skills programme. These also include online Help Desks which are supported by our Help Line which is still operating.
Latest Updates
Latest news, events, and jobs and opportunities, click headings to view all.
Open Call | PSYCHE at Science Gallery Bengaluru, Karnataka
Science Gallery Bengaluru seeks interactive, participatory works for PSYCHE, an exhibition- season that explores the mind—and the complexities of thinking and feeling—in December 2021–January 2022. Why do we think? Why do we dream? Why are we emotional beings? Is intelligence and the ability to think and feel restricted to humans? Researchers have grappled with the…
Residency | Victoria Square Project, Athens, Greece
Station One 2021 Residency for emerging artists focuses on Johannes Pfuhl’s neoclassical sculpture of Hippodamia in Victoria Square. The European and nationalist ideals represented by the sculpture stand in stark contrast to the everyday realities of the neighborhood’s Greek, immigrant, and refugee inhabitants, making it a timely object through which to engage current debates about…
Open Call | LIVE WORKS – Free School of Performance by Centrale Fies, Italy
Created in 2013 by Centrale Fies, in collaboration with Viafarini, LIVE WORKS – Free School of Performance is a platform dedicated to live contemporary practices that contribute to deepening and broadening the idea of performance, following the current evolution of performance and its styles. In times of continuous change Centrale Fies and the curatorial team…
Open Call | Human Machine Fellowship, Akademie der Künste, Germany
The Junge Akademie of the Akademie der Künste, in partnership with VISIT, the artist-in-residence programme of the E.ON Stiftung, is offering a new international fellowship to fund projects at the interface between art and science on the topic of the human-machine relationship. The complex relationship between human and machine has been the subject of art…
VAI Webinar | Applying for funding, opportunities (for print makers) (25 March)
Applying for funding, opportunIties (Print makers only) – In collaboration with Belfast Print Workshop This session is aimed at artists who feel they need to gain an overview on how to put together proposals for a variety of contexts. This session will also look at how to target opportunities relevant to your practice as a…
Visual Artists Help Desk with Rob Hilken (24 March)
Do you have an area in your practice you need help with or would just like some advice on where to go next? Artists can book a Help Desk session that will be held online. These Help Desks will be free of charge for Members and Non Members for the duration of the current crisis.…
Visual Artists Café | Introducing… Belfast (16 March)
Visual Artists Café: Introducing… Belfast is the first of a series of online events to highlight some of the support infrastructure for artists based in Belfast. During the first event we will hear from three people who will give short introductions and updates from their organisations and also speak on adaptions to Covid & updates on…
Visual Artists Help Desk with Shelly McDonnell (26 March)
Do you have an area in your practice you need help with or would just like some advice on where to go next? Artists can book a Help Desk session that will be held online. These Help Desks will be free of charge for Members and Non Members for the duration of the current crisis.…
Online Talk | Paul Carroll in conversation with Chris Moody
03/03/2021 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Paul Carroll in conversation with Chris Moody. Wednesday 3 March, 6pm This event takes the form of a Zoom meeting during which presentations will be made by both Paul Carroll and Chris Moody followed by discussion and Q&A. Email projects@backwaterartists.ie for Zoom invitation. Redd is a new series by photographer Paul Carroll that explores how people and communities in Ireland interact […]
Online Exhibition | Lockdown Landscapes
28/02/2021 – 01/04/2021 @ – Lockdown Landscapes is an online exhibition of work created during lockdown by Stephanie Noble. The dramatic, wild landscapes, lonely mountains and bracing seascapes that Stephanie chooses to paint, aim to snatch as much of the sensation in that environment as possible. Stephanie is a palette knife painter and almost all her oil or acrylic work […]
Online Screening | aemi online and EVA International present Emily McFarland’s Curraghinalt
10/02/2021 – 13/04/2021 @ – For this edition of ‘aemi online’ aemi is partnering with EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art, to present Emily McFarland’s Curraghinalt, a remarkable work in documentary form that aemi had the privilege of screening in real life in 2019 in partnership with AMINI as part of ‘No Longer Peripheral’, an event that explored artist moving […]
Online Festival | Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics
22/03/2021 – 28/03/2021 @ – One of Belfast’s most innovative and engaging festivals, Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics (22nd – 28th March) returns for its seventh year. The festival launched its virtual programme for 2021 on 18th February with comedian Tim McGarry. The week-long festival will host 115 webcasts (the great majority of which are free) during March […]
Minister Martin announces Details of SEODA – Culture Ireland’s Global Online Arts Festival
Minister Catherine Martin T.D. has announced details of Culture Ireland’s online festival for mid-March which is designed to celebrate Irish arts worldwide at a time when Irish artists normally travel the globe, presenting and sharing our culture on international stages. The festival, entitled SEODA, meaning jewels, includes many of Ireland’s finest artists and companies and…
Surviving or Thriving? Online Series to support the wellbeing of arts professionals – Waterford Healing Arts Trust and Arts Council
Surviving or Thriving? Arts Council and Waterford Healing Arts Trust announce innovative online series to support the wellbeing of the arts sector in Ireland The Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon and Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) have announced details of an innovative new online series designed to support the wellbeing of arts professionals in Ireland, with…
Business to Arts Awards 2021 Shortlist Announced
The 29th Business to Arts Awards Shortlist showcases a diverse range of partnerships across Ireland, many of which have evolved significantly due to Covid-19. The Awards recognise industry-leading creative partnerships. The shortlist includes best-practice in sponsorship, staff engagement, commissioning, philanthropy, CSR initiatives and community engagement with the arts. We congratulate the short-listed nominations in each category,…
Void Gallery Announces Move to New Location
Void Gallery is delighted to announce that in April 2021 it will move to a dedicated exhibition space in the heart of Derry city. This exciting move will enable Void to bring its visual arts programme to a wider audience. Void’s new home will be located at the foot of the Derry Walls, at 10…