Artist and Curator Café: Clare | Limerick | Tipperary – 21 April

The Arts Offices of Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary, in partnership with Visual Artists Ireland, invite you to the Artist and Curator Café. This intensive, one-day networking and professional development event is designed specifically for contemporary practitioners across the region.

The theme for this session is “Creating Your Own Exhibition Opportunities.” In an evolving arts landscape, the ability to self-organise, collaborate, and pitch effectively is more vital than ever. This event offers a unique platform to hear directly from industry experts and peers who are successfully navigating these paths.

What to Expect

• Curator Presentations: Gain insights from four guest curators—Alice Quinn Banville, Niamh Darling, Valeria Ceregini and Dr Marianne O’Kane Boal—as they discuss DIY spaces, freelance producing, and how to build professional relationships with curators.
• Artist Showcases: Hear from three local artists (selected via open call) who will present their work and share their experiences in generating new opportunities within the region.
• Networking & Dialogue: Meet fellow artists from neighbouring counties in a relaxed, café-style environment to spark new collaborations and share resources.

Whether you are an early-career artist or an established practitioner, this event provides the tools and connections to help you manifest your own creative projects.

Niamh Darling

Niamh Darling is a Dublin-based early-career curator, currently working as an Assistant Curator at The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art and Ireland at Venice 2026. Niamh’s curatorial practice is concerned with how social norms are shaped and sustained in the precarious conditions of life under late capitalism. In her previous role as the 2024 Provost’s Fellow in Curating at The Douglas Hyde, Niamhcurated Living Conditions, an event exploring the precarity embedded in the built environment, featuring new and existing works by Avril Corroon, Evan Kelly and Eva Richardson McCrea. In 2025, Niamh was Production Assistant to Deirdre O’Mahony on her forthcoming major new performance and moving image work. Niamh has also co-produced live performances and events including Miss Powder Vacuum in 2025 at The Douglas Hyde and Fringe was Here for Dublin Fringe Festival 2024. She was editor of Worlding, a publication featuring commissioned work by the 2024 Student Forum, and her writing has been published by The Lab, Visual Artist’s Newspaper and Paper Visual Art. She was recipient of the 2025 Agility Award.

Valeria Ceregini

Valeria Ceregini is an Italian Irish-based curator and art historian specialised in ecological and trans-cultural research. Working across Ireland and Europe, she develops interdisciplinary exhibitions and community-engaged projects, curating national and international premieres and supporting Irish artists through collaborative platforms. Her research explores new perspectives on contemporary art through cross-cultural dialogue.
She holds an MA in Communication Science (University of Turin), an MA (Hons) in History of Art, and a PGDip in Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies (University of Genoa). She is the founder and director of MISCIA, and an accredited Relational Dynamics coach. Her work is supported by organisations including the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, and Creative Ireland.

Dr Marianne O’Kane Boal

Dr Marianne O’Kane Boal is a well-known curator and writer on art and architecture. She has written extensively on these subjects over the past 25 years.  She writes for the Irish Arts Review, Circa, Perspective, Living Design, Visual Artists Newsletter and Architecture Ireland. She has curated over 50 exhibitions in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Marianne completed her PhD in Social Research at Atlantic Technological University Sligo in 2023. She is President of the Irish Section of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) and Expert Advisor on Art for the Ministerial Advisory Group on Architecture and the Built Environment in Northern Ireland. She has been delivering webinars and professional development workshops for Visual Artists Ireland for over fifteen years since 2009 on curating, creative proposals, presenting work, writing about practice and public art. Her research interests include art, architecture, children’s literature, the sociology of food and childhood studies. She has presented at conferences in Zurich, Prague, Chile, Belfast and Dublin.

Poster Image: Courtesy of the Nenagh Arts Centre.

This event is supported by Clare, Limerick and Tipperary County Councils

Register Now!