The Visual Artists’ News Sheet – November – December 2024
Special Issue: Sustaining Your Practice
The Nov/Dec 2024 special issue of The Visual Artists’ News Sheet has been directly informed by an open call for members’ questions we ran during the summer. VAI Members were invited to submit their questions for curators, gallerists, directors, critics, policymakers, funders, or fellow artists, which we subsequently posed to relevant arts professionals across the sector, whose responses are published in this issue as a series of specialist columns, interviews, policy updates, and case studies.
During our VAN Nov/Dec editorial meeting, a VAI staff member described this issue as “taking the pulse of the sector”, given its timely reflection of artists’ concerns across a broad range of subjects, loosely categorised across themes of access, infrastructure, funding, exhibitions, and ecological concerns.
Such was the demand from artists for information on securing exhibitions, that we have devoted a whole section to this inquiry. This is also one of the most common queries received through the VAI Helpdesk. We consulted with curators and directors across a range of different institutions and have assembled their top tips in an extended feature article: How Can I Get an Exhibition?
Another recurrent question from members relates to funding strands available for artists wishing to develop projects in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and internationally. In response, In Focus: Funding Case Studies offers examples of projects variously funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Local Authorities, Culture Ireland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media’s Decade of Centenaries programme.
On The Cover
