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Featured Listing
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VAI Lifelong Learning & Events
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VAI Lifelong Learning & Events
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ONLINE EVENT
Book a Help Desk with Brian Kielt (Advocacy & Advice NI) 8th July.
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 in for a FREE one-to-one appointment to discuss any aspects of their professional careers.
Help Desk sessions will be held online or on the phone. These Help Desks are free of charge for both Members and Non-Members.
How Can We Help You?
Help Desks can be on any topic related to your practice or even just general advice and support as a professional artist. Topics we cover can include:
- Funding applications
- Proposals
- Artist statements, bios and CVs
- Signposting to relevant arts organisations and contacts
- Signposting on topics relating to social welfare, tax and finance.
- Strategic planning
- Website and social media
- Networking
Prior to your session, feel free to send on some information to us to make the most of your time, such as images of work, exhibition proposals, links to websites, or any applications you are currently working on that you would like a second opinion on.
We will contact you in advance of the meeting with a link to the Zoom meeting and your scheduled time. If you would prefer to talk over the phone let us know.
For more information and to register, click here.
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ONLINE EVENT
Book a Help Desk with Brian Kielt (Advocacy & Advice NI) 15th July.
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 in for a FREE one-to-one appointment to discuss any aspects of their professional careers.
Help Desk sessions will be held online or on the phone. These Help Desks are free of charge for both Members and Non-Members.
How Can We Help You?
Help Desks can be on any topic related to your practice or even just general advice and support as a professional artist. Topics we cover can include:
- Funding applications
- Proposals
- Artist statements, bios and CVs
- Signposting to relevant arts organisations and contacts
- Signposting on topics relating to social welfare, tax and finance.
- Strategic planning
- Website and social media
- Networking
Prior to your session, feel free to send on some information to us to make the most of your time, such as images of work, exhibition proposals, links to websites, or any applications you are currently working on that you would like a second opinion on.
We will contact you in advance of the meeting with a link to the Zoom meeting and your scheduled time. If you would prefer to talk over the phone let us know.
For more information and to register, click here.
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Drawing on 13 years of experience as Glasgow School of Art’s resident environmentalist, this interactive session explores the rise of bio-materials, ethical supply chains, and the wider environmental and social impacts of creative practice.
Discover practical ways to ‘green’ your workspace while building more resilient communities. We will discuss the ethics and psychology behind creative work, and highlight the powerful, positive role artists play in addressing environmental change.
John Thorne
John Thorne is an environmentalist, and has worked at Glasgow School of Art since 2013. Working with design, architecture and fine art students, his work seeks to help them examine their material use, and to help explore connections between students’ subject areas and environmental and social justice.
A growing part of his role is assisting students who are struggling with Climate Distress, and ways to benefit their general wellbeing. Through a deeper and more connected practice, students find ways to address issues facing our society today, be it a deeper emotional connection through their art practice, or better design of part of our system.
By looking more closely at the ethics of their practice, students find new ways of working, of connecting to others, and to more opportunities in their future work.
For more information and to register, click here.
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ONLINE EVENT
Book a Help Desk with Brian Kielt (Advocacy & Advice NI) 22nd of July.
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 in for a FREE one-to-one appointment to discuss any aspects of their professional careers.
Help Desk sessions will be held online or on the phone. These Help Desks are free of charge for both Members and Non-Members.
How Can We Help You?
Help Desks can be on any topic related to your practice or even just general advice and support as a professional artist. Topics we cover can include:
- Funding applications
- Proposals
- Artist statements, bios and CVs
- Signposting to relevant arts organisations and contacts
- Signposting on topics relating to social welfare, tax and finance.
- Strategic planning
- Website and social media
- Networking
Prior to your session, feel free to send on some information to us to make the most of your time, such as images of work, exhibition proposals, links to websites, or any applications you are currently working on that you would like a second opinion on.
We will contact you in advance of the meeting with a link to the Zoom meeting and your scheduled time. If you would prefer to talk over the phone let us know.
For more information and to register, click here.
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Connected Horizons: Kirsty Bell | Bassam Issa Al-Sabah
Tuesday 28 July | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Join us for the next instalment of Connected Horizons, a programme dedicated to fostering dialogue and the exchange of ideas between artists and organisations across the island and beyond. This session brings together two distinct and compelling voices working across different mediums: Painter Kirsty Bell and digital media and installation artist Bassam Issa Al-Sabah.
Despite their different technical outputs, both artists share a fascination with the “uncanny” nature of isolated objects and the construction of theatrical, psychologically charged spaces. This webinar offers an opportunity to explore the intersection of their practices—specifically their shared use of a curated, “familial” cast of characters, toys, or figurines to navigate memory, nostalgia, and the fabrication of reality.
The 90-minute session will feature individual presentations from both artists, followed by an “in conversation” segment and a live audience Q&A.
This pairing provides a window into how contemporary artists are pushing the boundaries of representation. Whether you are interested in the technical illusion of traditional painting or the world-building potential of digital rendering, this session promises a rich, cross-medium exploration and conversation.
Kirsty Bell
Kirsty Bell’s work strives for proximity but never quite reaches an ultimate conclusion. Her work seeks to generate elusive, shape-shifting images, blending found components gleaned and gathered from the environment surrounding her, manipulating them to create a nearness to something other. She forms imagery that oscillates and is suspended between conclusion and inception.
Bell has recently finished a year long Fellowship with the Freelands Foundation at the Belfast School of Art. Previously the Artist in Residence in the Leith School of Art 2024-25. She has also been the recipient of the RSA Benno Shotz prize in 2025, Ingram Prize finalist in 2025, Porthmeor Studio residency 2024, RSA John Kinross Florence Scholarship in 2023, Freelands Painting Prize Winner in 2023.
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah is a visual artist whose practice spans film, animation, sculpture, and installation. He works at the intersection of digital and material forms, exploring shifting identities, corporeal interfaces, and the circulation of image and emotion within contemporary culture. His solo exhibitions include THE MISSION IS THE END, THE END IS ALL I WANT! (FACT, Liverpool, 2025), Uncensored Lilac (Transmediale, Berlin, 2024; Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, Germany, 2024). ITS DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS (The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 2023)
Poster Images: Kirsty Bell installation shot by Fergus Devlin & CGI Portrait by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah.
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ONLINE EVENT
Book a Help Desk with Brian Kielt (Advocacy & Advice NI) 29th July 2026.
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 in for a FREE one-to-one appointment to discuss any aspects of their professional careers.
Help Desk sessions will be held online or on the phone. These Help Desks are free of charge for both Members and Non-Members.
How Can We Help You?
Help Desks can be on any topic related to your practice or even just general advice and support as a professional artist. Topics we cover can include:
- Funding applications
- Proposals
- Artist statements, bios and CVs
- Signposting to relevant arts organisations and contacts
- Signposting on topics relating to social welfare, tax and finance.
- Strategic planning
- Website and social media
- Networking
Prior to your session, feel free to send on some information to us to make the most of your time, such as images of work, exhibition proposals, links to websites, or any applications you are currently working on that you would like a second opinion on.
We will contact you in advance of the meeting with a link to the Zoom meeting and your scheduled time. If you would prefer to talk over the phone let us know.
For more information and to register, click here.
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Call for Participants: Connected Horizons Programme
Are you an artist based in Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Tipperary or Waterford? Join VAI’s Connected Horizons Programme to connect with fellow artists, receive constructive feedback, and engage with leading arts organisations.
Programme Overview
- Session 1:Organisations | Show & Tell (Monday 8th June, Online)
Meet key arts organisations across Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Tipperary and Waterford and present your work in a rapid but supportive format.
- Session 2: Online Peer Critique (Tuesday 16th June, Online)
A structured, moderated critique session for in-depth feedback.
- Session 3: In-Person Clinics & Networking (Tuesday 30th June, VAI Dublin)
Meet peers and facilitators for networking and one-on-one clinics. Limited places – first come, first served.
Event 3: In-Person Clinics & Networking (Tuesday the 30th June, VAI Dublin)
This is the third and final event in the Connected Horizons Programme, bringing together participants for in-person networking. Hosted at the VAI offices in Dublin, this session offers:
- A soft lounge area for informal networking and discussions with attending arts organisations, other artists and VAI staff.
- 1-1 Clinics with Arts Organisations that took part in the first event.
- Coffee, tea, and nibbles available throughout the session.
Organisations to Meet
- Marketplace Theatre and Arts Centre
- Cavan Arts Office
- Regional Cultural Centre
- Source Arts Centre
- Garter Lane Arts Centre
Who Can Join?
Artists in any discipline based in Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Tipperary or Waterford.
For more information and to register, click here.
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We recommend that you check all eligibility criteria carefully. As the All Ireland representative body we aim to advertise opportunities available to all artists. But with new restrictions, some opportunities may only be available to artists in the Republic of Ireland, the EU or specifically in Northern Ireland or the UK.
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International Memberships
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GDPR Compliance
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Visual Artists Ireland - Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire
Head Office
First Floor, 2 Curved Street
Dublin 2, D02 PC43
Tel: +353 (0)1 672 9488
Fax: +353 (0)1 672 9482
Email: in...@visualartists.ie
Northern Ireland Office
109 - 113 Royal Avenue,
Belfast, BT1 1FF
Northern Ireland
Tel: +44 (0)28 9587 0361
Email: in...@visualartists-ni.org
Registered Charity No. CHY 9629
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