Dear VAI members and prospective members,

Due to the exceptionally high volume of correspondence relating to applications for the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) scheme, please be advised that membership renewals, new membership processing, and the mailing of physical certificates will be delayed up to 2-3 weeks.

We are a small, dedicated team and remain steadfast in our support of artists and the wider arts sector. While we welcome the expansion of the BIA scheme, and all of the new members who have joined our vibrant community, we are asking for your understanding and patience during this time.

We understand the frustrations at these delays and we can assure you that our team has been working as hard as we can to meet your needs. However, it is wholly unacceptable to verbally accost or disrespect VAI staff members, whether over the phone, email, or social media. Our code of conduct may be found here: https://visualartists.ie/code-of-conduct-for-members

Please be advised: The Department of Culture, Communication, and Sport will currently only accept an embossed certificate OR a photographed/photocopied image of the front and back of your physical professional membership card (combined into a single PDF) from VAI as proof of professional membership. The mailing of these certificates and membership cards are subject to the aforementioned delays. You cannot submit a screenshot of your professional membership card or your digital membership card as proof of membership. If this situation changes we will let you know. We are working on alternative solutions acceptable to the Department.

BIA Queries

As a reminder, we are not in a position to pre-approve application materials for the BIA scheme. VAI only has access to the publicly available information available at gov.ie.

All pertinent information to apply for BIA can be found at: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-culture-communications-and-sport/publications/basic-income-for-the-arts-scheme-2026-2029-guidelines-for-application/

In order to expedite joining VAI or renewing your membership, we are asking that you please direct all enquiries about BIA, membership criteria, and membership applications to membership@visualartists.ie.

VAI Membership Renewal

If you are seeking to renew your membership, you can renew online by logging into your members profile:

Log In to Members Area.

In the ‘About’ tab, scroll down to the bottom and click on the button to ‘Renew, Upgrade or Update Billing’.

This will help ensure your membership applications and renewals are completed in an efficient and timely manner.

If you are unable to access a computer, are visually impaired, or have other circumstances that preclude you from using our online systems, you may contact us at 01 672 9488.

Otherwise, please help keep our phone lines free, in order to continue to assist our community in need of our help desks and advice experts.

We thank you all for your continued support, understanding, and patience.

This is an exciting new chapter for the visual arts in Ireland, and we continue to welcome all members of our visual arts community to Visual Artists Ireland.

With many thanks,

Visual Artists Ireland

From: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport

Published on: 1 April 2026

The scheme will open for applications at 1pm on Wednesday 15th April 2026.

Before applying for the scheme it is important to note the following

– The scheme is for professional practicing artists only

– Applicants must be based in the Republic of Ireland at time of application

– Funding for 2,000 applicants is available, it is expected that the number of eligible applicants will exceed that number, therefore eligibility does not confer an entitlement to receive the payment

– Applicants will be required to prove that their artistic practice is largely based in Ireland

– Applicants will need to provide three approved proofs of their professional artistic practice in order to demonstrate eligibility

– Annual audits will take place to reconfirm eligibility

– The names of successful applicants will be published which is common practice for the receipt of State funding

– Successful applicants will need to be tax cleared by Revenue and must register as self-employed if they are not already and provide an annual Revenue Form 11 to ensure tax compliance

– Successful applicants will be required to remain primarily based in the Republic of Ireland for the duration of the scheme

Artists seeking to apply for the Basic Income for the Arts can find application guidelines here.

For all queries about the application process, email: basicincomeforthearts@ccs.gov.ie

The application portal will open at 1pm on Wednesday 15th April 2026

The deadline for application is 5pm on Tuesday 12th May 2026

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet is guaranteed the most affordable and cost effective platform for publicising art events, exhibitions, arts services, artists’ materials & equipment, notices of commissions & other opportunities for artists. We print and distribute 6000 copies per issue of this 40 page newspaper throughout Ireland six times a year, ensuring that your advertising is read as timely and relevant.

All advertising queries should be directed to:

Thomas Pool
News Provision
T: 01 672 9488
E: news@visualartists.ie

The deadline is fast approaching and if you have yet to reserve ad space please do so as soon as possible. We only have Inside Pages space left available.

As part of VAI’s push to become a more green organisation we now use biodegradable packaging for individual subscribers of the VAN.

Alongside the print advertising that we continue to offer in The Visual Artists’ News Sheet – VAI’s bi-monthly publication – we also offer digital banner adverts within VAI’s twice weekly eBulletin as well as promotional posts across VAI’s extensive social media platforms.

When placing an advertisement in the VAN, you can now maximise your audience with this new bundle (comprising an ad in the eBulletin, with the additional option of a targeted promotional post across VAI’s social media platforms) for an additional fee of €155.

We have recently simplified the process for our Facebook advertisements, and have optimised the pricing to produce over 10,000 views per post. If your target audience is smaller this can be adequately adjusted upon request.

As a result of this highly successful programme, we are excited to offer you a the VAN, eBulletin and Social Media Advertising Bundle, which comprises three strands:

1. Print Advertisement (The VAN) – A well respected and durational advertising option, best suited to the promotion of forthcoming or seasonal programmes, events and opportunities.
2. Digital Banner Advertisement (VAI eBulletin) – A responsive advertising option within our eBulletin (twice per week). This option is best suited to the promotion of immediate or short-term programmes, events and opportunities.
3. Social Media Advertising (VAI Facebook Page) – A targeted advertising option to run in conjunction with Digital Banner Advertisements, best suited to the promotion of immediate or short-term programmes, events and opportunities.

Advertisers now have the option to promote different programmes or opportunities in print and online. These bundles are flexible with the needs of our advertisers in mind, to ensure that your ad is seen by the maximum amount of VAI readers and subscribers.

Who Are We?

• Visual Artists Ireland is a trusted space and respected information resource.
• VAI is in a unique position of having contact with artists, arts professionals and arts organisations on a weekly basis, through the various services we provide.
• Recent VAI figures show that we directly engage with more than 80% of visual artists in Ireland.

VAI Reach & Engagement:

• VAN Readership = 5,600
• eBulletin Mailing List = 12,000 subscribers (with a click rate of 46%)
• Facebook = 31,000 followers
• Instagram = 13,400 followers
• Twitter = 16,200 followers

Returns for Advertisers:

• Access to a concentrated visual arts audience across Ireland, Northern Ireland and beyond, who regularly engage with our services across multiple platforms.
• Access to over 44,000 social media followers, located nationwide and internationally.

Additional Perks for VAI Member Organisations

• VAI Member Organisations can now enjoy a 10% discount on all advertisements placed in the VAN as well as in the eBulletin.

You can refer to our updated 2025 Advertising Rate Card for a list of competitive prices, as well as technical specifications for your advertisements.

Please do get in touch to discuss these options or to book an advertising slot across one or more of these platforms. Since demand is already high and space is limited, advertisements will be placed on a first-come-first-serve basis.

To reserve advertising space contact Thomas at news@visualartists.ie

From Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

18th March 2026

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) is pleased to announce Joanne Reid as the recipient of the Paul Robinson Studio Award 2026, proudly sponsored by leading law firm Arthur Cox LLP.

The Paul Robinson Studio Award supports an emerging artist of talent and promise to develop and focus their artistic practice during their Project Studio Membership at TBG+S. The award is created in the memory of Paul Robinson, a partner and much-loved member of the Arthur Cox team for over 20 years and TBG+S Board Member from October 2013 to November 2017. He is warmly remembered with great fondness and respect for his many contributions to the organisation, support of artists and his engaging interest in contemporary art.

Joanne Reid is the recipient of the Paul Robinson Studio Award in 2026. Working primarily in sculpture, her work often begins as an intuitive response to materials, objects and spaces that form our built environment. Reid’s material vocabulary draws primarily from the urban environment and construction sites, often using steel, plywood, timber, plaster, and concrete. Reid is interested in our desire to reproduce the natural world and the history of ornament in architecture and is influenced by art historical compositions, such as the still life.

Select exhibitions include: Residues of the Garden of Eden, The Complex, Dublin (2025); Thresholds to the Unseen, Solstice Arts Centre, Meath (2024); Sample Set, Studio 1, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (2023); Home Bodies, Glandwr, Dublin (2021); Dearly Beloved: ARTWORKS ,VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow (2019); Futures, Series 3, Episode 2, RHA Gallery, Dublin (2018).

From Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

16th March 2026

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) is pleased to announce the awarded artists from the open calls for Six Year Membership, Three Year Membership and Project Studios.

Six Year Membership Studios have been awarded to Jaki Irvine and Niamh O’Malley. Three Year Membership Studios have been awarded to Caoimhe Kilfeather, Diaa Lagan, Michelle Malone, and Aileen Murphy. Project Studios have been awarded to Colm Keady-Tabbal, Thaís Muniz, Joanne Reid, and Eoghan Ryan.

Six Year Membership Studios offer long-term tenure to exceptional visual artists living in Ireland for which an open call is made every six years. Three Year Membership Studios offer a long-term tenure to artists who have developed an established, professional practice. Project Studios offer a one-year tenure to artists who are developing exciting emerging practices and demonstrate talent and potential. An open call for Three Year Membership and Project Studios is made annually.

The artists were awarded studios by a selection panel including current TBG+S Studio members and established curators based in Ireland and internationally. The selected artists are representative of the exceptionally high-quality and rigorous contemporary art practices in Ireland today. Studios are subsidised with support from the Arts Council, with additional support for one Project Studio annually through the Paul Robinson Studio Award, sponsored by Arthur Cox LLP.

TBG+S received a large number of high-quality applications for Studio Membership and would like to extend our gratitude to all artists who took time to submit to the open call.

TBG+S looks forward to welcoming the incoming artists to the Studios and the community of artists.

2026 Studio Membership Artists

Jaki Irvine places music and sound at the core of her moving-image installations, often composing and performing soundtracks while collaborating in improvisation with musicians. These improvised exchanges introduce openness, responsiveness, and a live sensibility into her work, allowing video editing, rhythm and sounds to evolve intuitively, blurring boundaries between the known and unknowable, practice and performance.

Colm Keady-Tabbal is an artist based in Dublin and New York.

Caoimhe Kilfeather makes work across sculpture, photography, film, and installation. Her practice grows from hands-on studio experimentation and research into architecture, ritual, memory and landscape. She is especially interested in everyday, vernacular structures and how their materials and histories shape the way people feel towards and understand a place.

Diaa Lagan is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice weaves together mythology, history and contemporary realities to explore the complexities of human experience. Through metaphorical narratives and symbolic imagery, He reinterprets ancient myths and cultural archetypes to reflect contemporary socio-political conditions. Lagan’s work examines how language functions as both a visual system and a carrier of cultural knowledge across diasporic histories.

Michelle Malone practice is based on her experience growing up in a variety of social housing systems in inner-city Dublin, primarily Oliver Bond flats. Her multi-disciplinary installations comprise sculpture, image-making, oral histories, audio, and text. Her practice seeks to give material voice to working-class histories from the perspective of lived experience. It is her belief that it is much needed in the art industry to let marginalised people tell their own story.

Thaís Muniz practice explores the intersections of inherited and acquired identities, memory, transit, and inward love as a methodology of radical self care. She creates intimate and collective spaces through film, performance, workshops, sculpture, and print, responding to the geopolitics of place. Muniz’s work engages in the reimagining of realities by employing mechanisms of refusal, education, dreaming, and personal magic.

Aileen Murphy approaches painting and its history with care and a playfully disobedient spirit. Her large-scale paintings, drawings, and collages explore the body, humour, psychological states, and fantastical imagery. She layers motifs, forms, and techniques in ways that blur boundaries between figuration and abstraction.

Niamh O’Malley is works with moving image alongside sculptural materials including glass, wood, metal, and stone. Through objects and recorded fragments, she produces material and physical gestures that revive and reanimate a form, an architecture, or a moment. Her works gesture towards enabling or offering protection, conveying sensations of touch, and more – of grabbing, holding, or caressing surfaces, offering a moment of tether and precarious poise.

Working primarily in sculpture, Joanne Reid’s work often begins as an intuitive response to materials, objects and spaces that form our built environment. Reid’s material vocabulary draws primarily from the urban environment and construction sites, often using steel, plywood, timber, plaster, and concrete. Reid is interested in our desire to reproduce the natural world and the history of ornament in architecture and is influenced by art historical compositions, such as the still life.

Eoghan Ryan works across moving image, installation, performance, puppetry, and collage to explore how power circulates socially and through mediated culture. His process involves sustained periods of editing and documentation focused on specific people, sites, objects, or songs, developing fable-like reflections on the collective and the personal as institutions. These institutions range from states of being and nation-states to the cultivation of provisional culture, in art as in bacteria.

In the second instalment of our two-part special series on the 2026 Dublin International Film Festival, film critics Caileigh Ryan and Paul Dunne, as well as miniVAN Commissioning Editor Thomas Pool, review a selection of films, including two foreign-language films, that premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival 2026, exclusively for Visual Artists Ireland!

Check it out now by clicking here!

The miniVAN is the online magazine published by Visual Artists Ireland. With uniquely commissioned content, The miniVAN explores the visual arts with an accessible view of all aspects of careers and practice that make up our visual community.

VAN March/April 2026 issue foregrounds visual art projects, events, exhibitions, and screening programmes happening around the country and overseas. For the international section, John Graham considers the Gerhard Richter retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris; Cian Duggan discusses his recent exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City and the wider art scene in Vietnam; and Brenda Moore-McCann reports on an event in Rome with Na Cailleacha for St Brigid’s Day.

Among feature articles for this issue, Helena Tobin reflects on the evolution of South Tipperary Arts Centre over the last 30 years; Aengus Woods considers several recent photography exhibitions in Dublin; Emma Battlebury outlines ‘Desire Lines’, a screening programme organised by aemi; while member profiles explore the art practices of Charys Wilson, Mary St. Leger, and Marie Phelan.

This issue also includes timely coverage of recent exhibitions nationwide: ‘WAAG: An Archive’ at Mermaid Arts Centre in Wicklow; Oliver Jeffers at Naughton Gallery in Belfast; Elinor O’Donovan at Triskel Arts Centre and Sirius Arts Centre in Cork; ‘It’s Not Clear from Here’ at CCA Derry ~ Londonderry; Naomi Sex at VISUAL Carlow; and ‘Songs to the Siren’ at The Model in Sligo.

On The Cover

Na Cailleacha, The School of Hibernia (After Raphael), 2024 [detail], tableau staged in the Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, 9 March 2024; photograph by Ros Kavanagh, courtesy of the artists and Trinity College Dublin.

FIRST PAGES 

6          Roundup. Exhibitions and events from the past two months.

8          News. The latest developments in the arts sector.

COLUMNS

9          Close-Knit. Cornelius Browne considers the handcrafted patterns that bind him to his ancestors.

            What Is A Creative Producer? Rachel Botha reports on a recent event at Mermaid Arts Centre.

10        Municipal Walker. Lian Bell discusses a monthly ritualised walk around Dublin undertaken as an act of civic care.

The Business of Art. VAI Advocacy OfficerBrian Kieltoutlines financial advice and resources for visualartists.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT  

11        Between My Finger and My Thumb. Joseph McBrinn interviews Cardiff-based Irish artist Claire Curneen.

MOVING IMAGE

12        Desire Lines. Emma Battlebury outlines a screening programme organised by aemi.

SOCIALLY ENGAGED PRACTICE

14        Lattices of Love. Sarah Browne describes a project by Workhouse Union exploring relational understandings of care.

ART COLLECTIVE

15        Waking The Land. The ÁIT Collective outline their collaborative ethos and recent activities.

PHOTOGRAPHY ROUNDUP

16        New Mythologies. Aengus Woods reflects on several recent photography exhibitions in Dublin. 

CRITIQUE

19        Oliver Jeffers, ‘Disasters and Interventions’, installation view. 

20        ‘WAAG: An Archive’ at Mermaid Arts Centre

21        Oliver Jeffers at Naughton Gallery

22        Elinor O’Donovan at Triskel and Sirius Art Centres

23        ‘It’s Not Clear from Here’ at CCA Derry~Londonderry

24        Naomi Sex at VISUAL

INTERNATIONAL

26        Post Mortem. John Graham considers the recent Gerhard Richter retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. 

28        Thinspace. Cian Duggan discusses his recent exhibition in Vietnam.

29        School of Hibernia. Brenda Moore-McCann reports on an event in Rome with Na Cailleacha for St Brigid’s Day.

ORGANISATION

28        STAC at 30. Helena Tobin reflects on the evolution of South Tipperary Arts Centre over the last 30 years.

EXHIBITION

30        Songs to the Siren. Phillina Sun reviews the current show at The Model in Sligo.

MEMBER

32        Spaces Between. Charys Wilson discusses developments in her art practice including some recent solo shows in Belfast.

33        The Eccentricities of Identity. Brian Curtin discusses the evolution of Mary St. Leger’s painting practice and career.

34        Transformative Encounters. Marie Phelan outlines some recent developments in her multidisciplinary art practice.

LAST PAGES

35        Opportunities. Grants, awards, open calls, and commissions.

36        VAI Lifelong Learning. Helpdesks, cafés, and webinars.

From La Biennale di Venezia

25th February 2026

The 61st International Art Exhibition In Minor Keys (9 May to 22 November 2026) will feature 111 invited participants – among them, individual artists, collaborative duos, collectives, and artist-led organisations – hail from many geographies and regions selected by Koyo Kouoh with particular attention to resonances, affinity, and and possible convergences between practices, even when far apart. In looking to artists working in Salvador, Dakar, San Juan, Beirut, Paris, or Nashville, for example, Koyo sought to envision how their ingenuity, breadth of material experimentation, and visionary ideas bear connections to other artists and movements in simultaneity. In this spirit, In Minor Keys expands upon Koyo’s relational geography of encounters with artists over her lifetime. 

For more information, click here.

In the first instalment of our two-part special series on the 2026 Dublin International Film Festival, miniVAN Commissioning Editor Thomas Pool reports on the opening night of the Dublin International Film Festival 2026 and reviews the world premiere of ‘Once Upon a Time in a Cinema’, exclusively for Visual Artists Ireland!

Stay tuned for Part II, with more in-depth coverage of this year’s festival, in the beginning of March.

Check it out now by clicking here!

The miniVAN is the online magazine published by Visual Artists Ireland. With uniquely commissioned content, The miniVAN explores the visual arts with an accessible view of all aspects of careers and practice that make up our visual community.

From Royal Hibernian Academy

Thursday February 12th 2026

The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts is delighted to announce that artists Eileen Leonard Sealy and Daniel Coleman have been awarded the Hennessy Craig Award 2026 and artists Manar Mervat Al Shouha and Conor O’Connell have been awarded the Homan Potterton Award, 2026. Both awards, the largest awards for painters in Ireland, were announced at a ceremony held at the RHA Gallery, on Thursday 12 February.

The Hennessy Craig/Potterton jury selected five artists, from both the 2024 and 2025 Annual Exhibitions, who were invited to submit two new works, currently showing at the RHA until 29 March.

Since 2002, the Hennessy Craig Award has recognised exceptional talent among painters under the age of thirty-five who have studied at a recognised art college on the island of Ireland and exhibited in the open submission section of the Academy’s Annual Exhibition. Introduced in 2024, the Homan Potterton Prize was established through a generous bequest from the late Homan Potterton, former Director of the National Gallery of Ireland and one of the country’s foremost art historians. The prize honours a painter under thirty-five whose work reflects the enduring traditions of figurative or landscape painting.

This year, the Hennessy Craig / Potterton jury has selected artists from both the 2024 and 2025 Annual Exhibitions. Each shortlisted artist has been invited to present two new works for this exhibition, with the final awards reflecting the artist’s overall practice.

2026 Shortlisted artists:
Maya Brezing · Mantas Poderys · Matthew Stickland · Liam Murray · Salvatore of Lucan · Owen de Forge · Manar Mervat Al Shouha · Eileen Leonard Sealy · Conor O’Connell · Daniel Coleman

The jurors would like to congratulate this group of artists on the exceptional quality of their work and for maintaining such uncompromising artistic integrity. In the contemporary art world, competing for awards is a strategy that extends beyond the pursuit of the award – it serves as a vital process for professional validation. It enables artists to engage in dialogue on why painting never loses its relevance. It transforms art practice from being a solitary pursuit into a dynamic, collective experience.

The standard was so high that the jury had great difficulty in selecting a single winner for each award and decided make joint awards for both categories.

The Hennessy Craig Award 2026, €20,000 – Bequest of the estate of Patrick Hennessy and Henry Robertson Craig. Awarded to: Eileen Leonard Sealy, Daniel Coleman, €10,000 each
The Homan Potterton Prize 2026, €20,000 – Bequest of the estate of Homan Potterton. Awarded to: Manar Mervat Al Shouha, Conor O’Connell, €10,000 each
These four artists, while different in their aesthetic and conceptual concerns, collectively demonstrate the enduring relevance of contemporary figurative painting. They each, in their unique way, push the boundaries of representation, inviting viewers to engage with questions about loss, identity, historic references and the human condition.

This exhibition presents a rare opportunity to experience – and for discerning collectors, to acquire – the finest work from Ireland’s most exciting new generation of painters.

For more information, click here.