!!!! Opportunity for Schools: VISUAL Collective Transition Year Programme 2025
VISUAL Carlow
Deadline: 12 September 2025
Transition Year Work Experience Programme in VISUAL Carlow is now open for applications for autumn 2025. The VISUAL Collective Transition Year Programme runs from 26 September – 2 December 2025.
Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at an arts centre? Would you like to find out more about how galleries and theatres work, to decide if a career in the arts is for you? Would you like to develop your own event at VISUAL with a group of peers?
In this transition year work experience programme you will get the opportunity to:
- Be brought behind the scenes at VISUAL to meet with artists, theatre makers, performers, technicians and more.
- Develop an understanding of how to pursue further education and a career in the arts, learning from people who work in the arts!
- Meet and learn from invited guest speakers in a range of workshops. You will learn how they developed their careers in the arts, gaining first-hand information relevant to real-world work experience.
- Gain experience as an artist in making your own art across a range of different approaches (visual art, performance, music, etc.).
- Work as a group to develop an event in December 2025. This event will showcase work you make throughout the programme and will give you the opportunity to become a part of cultural programming at VISUAL Carlow!
- Assist the team at VISUAL with programmed events and festivals.
- Become familiar with the artworks in the current exhibitions and explore the processes involved in their making.
- Advise the team about what future transition year students would want from a work experience programme, making your mark for future generations of transition year students.
For more information on the VISUAL Collective Transition Year Programme and how to apply, follow this link: visualcarlow.ie/whats-on/visual-collective
!!!! 2025 Portal Spring Regional Day – Programme Announced & Booking Now Open
Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day
Date: Saturday 17 May 2025
The Arts in Education Portal team is delighted to announce the full programme for our Spring Regional Day on Saturday 17 May at VISUAL Carlow. This event will showcase arts in education projects and creative practice in the South-East.
We invite teachers, artists, educators, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education in Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and beyond to join us for this free event. We welcome regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
The programme starts with two presentations in the morning: Learning at VISUAL: Artist-led approaches for working with children of school-age with Learning Curator Clare Breen; and Practical Podcasting with Creative Associate Artist Muireann Nic Cába showcasing podcasting as an engaging medium for young people.
In the afternoon, join us for some hands-on creativity with a choice between two exciting workshops. Come to Rooted in Art: A Kokedama Workshop with Agnieszka Krym where you will create your own kokedama, a moss-covered plant sculpture rooted in the Japanese tradition of botanical art. Alternatively, join Olana Kucher for Circular Fashion & Create Without Pollution: Youth Skills for Sustainable Fashion. These workshops promise to be interactive, fun and informative!
How to Book
Tickets for the 2025 Portal Spring Regional Day are free. It is essential to book in advance as capacity is limited. Book your place at: eventbrite.ie
ISL interpretation is available on request. If you would like to request ISL interpretation, please email events@artsineducation.ie by May 7th.
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Schedule
10:15 — Registration & coffee
11:00 — Welcome & introduction – The Portal: a brief introduction by Portal team.
11:15 — Presentation: Learning at VISUAL: Artist-led approaches for working with children of school-age with Learning Curator Clare Breen
11:45 — Presentation: Practical Podcasting with Creative Associate Artist Muireann Nic Cába.
12:15 — Q & A with panel of presenters
12:45 — Lunch & networking
13:45 – 15:00 — Parallel session – choice between two creative workshops:
Rooted in Art: A Kokedama Workshop with Agnieszka Krym
or
Circular Fashion & Create Without Pollution: Youth Skills for Sustainable Fashion with Olana Kucher.
!!!! School Tours & Workshops at VISUAL Carlow
VISUAL Carlow
until 15th May 2025
School tours and art-making workshops are available to book for primary school students of all ages.
Each season at VISUAL Carlow, students explore the exhibitions through conversation, playful enquiry and making.
Using methodologies and materials inspired by their current exhibitions, students are invited to work together to create different landscapes.
Students will explore shadow-outlining inspired by Deirdre O’Mahony’s paintings, birds-eye views inspired by Carol Rhodes’ constructed landscapes, and pirate egalitarianism inspired by Dominique White’s sculptural installation, to imagine and make drawings collaboratively.
During the tour and workshops, students will practice…
- Looking together: Students will be introduced to the current exhibitions with collectively exploration of observations and ideas.
- Hands-on making: The group will be invited to imagine themselves as pirates, an inspiring mode of collectiveness where everyone’s voice is heard and everyone makes their mark. Working collaboratively as equals in groups of 5, they will imagine new landscapes. Each group will be given a unique set of materials (e.g. sticks and chalk, stones and string, graphite and pencil) for image-making. The groups will be invited to begin to shape their landscapes by tracing shadows of stones and shadows of their limbs on large scale paper. These shapes will stimulate ideas for the material, physical and architectural composition of their landscapes.
- Sharing: Each group will come up with a name for their landscape and a brief description of how it was formed and what life it supports and what stories it holds. They will present their work to each other and will reflect together on the processes used and stories generated.
Availability:
- Tuesdays (10am & 12noon)
- Wednesdays (10am & 12noon)
- Thursdays (12noon)
Duration: 90 minutes
Cost: €50
Capacity: A maximum of 30 students*
Supervision: Teachers are asked to remain present for the duration of the workshop.
*Looking to book more than one tour or a group larger than 30? This can be accommodated via several options. Please contact VISUAL to discuss what will be best for your classes needs. Email Arlene Caffrey at learning@visualcarlow.ie