Advice for Starting Out
Everyone has to start somewhere and not having milestones in your CV does not mean you can’t access opportunities, if an artist is able to present their artwork professionally and communicate their ideas clearly, then they can actively engage with the majority of funding and exhibition opportunities available.
We advertise studio vacancies in our online listings and we also have an Arts Directory that will help you find studio spaces in your area.
Studio Vacancies: https://visualartists.ie/studios-spaces-for-rent/
Arts Directory – Studios: https://visualartists.ie/artist-studios/#!directory/map
Finding Exhibition Opportunities
When looking for exhibition opportunities good place to start is with the opportunity listings on our website and sign up to receive our free email newsletter – the e-bulletin. The majority of galleries and spaces in the country advertise their calls for artists through us. Some may be the more established commercial galleries looking for high profile artists but many calls are from smaller galleries / spaces looking for emerging artists earlier in their career.
The information in the ebulletin can also be viewed on our website in the Jobs and Opportunities section: https://visualartists.ie/jobs-opportunities/
You can sign up for the ebulletin online here:
From here you can apply for exhibitions by responding to calls that seem relevant to your practice. We try to make the terms as clear as possible so we will say if there are any fees to apply or if there is a budget available to the selected artists.
Our Jobs and Opportunities ebulletin also regularly provides info on commissions, competitions, workshops and training, talks and seminars etc – all directed towards visual artists at all stages of their career.
It is also a good idea to keep an eye on the Exhibitions and Events ebulletin (Sundays). Even if you will not make it to the exhibition it is a great way to get a sense of the type of work a gallery shows and if it would be worth your while approaching them. Contact details for the galleries are listed with the information. The What’s On listings include details of exhibition openings, which can be a good way to meet artists and find out more about what’s going on. You can also see this info online: https://visualartists.ie/whats-on-around-ireland/
Arts Directory
Here is a link to the Arts Directory on our website, another useful resource when looking for what galleries are out there, you can search Art Organisations by category including location, Public Galleries, Commercial Galleries and Artist Led Organisations:
VAI Events
You may be interested in attending some of our upcoming Lifelong Learning workshops for focused training on areas of visual art practice in everything from tax, self-employment to sustaining your practice and writing proposals.
We also have online help desks and Visual Artists Café’s – which are networking events to meet other artists.
A full list of our upcoming events can be viewed online here: https://visualartists.ie/upcoming-vai-events/#!event-list
Help Desk
You can also contact us directly to talk things over on
+353 (0)1 672 9488
To contact VAI Northern Ireland Help-Desk: belfast.office@visualartists.ie,
+44 (0)28 9587 0361
We also run Help Desks through Zoom twice a month and can be booked online here: https://visualartists.ie/upcoming-vai-events/#!event-list