African Irish Artist Residency Award 2024-25

Open Call to Artists - Artists’ Residency Award

Photo Museum Ireland is inviting African Irish artists and artists with African heritage living or making work in Ireland to apply for our new African Irish Artists’ Residency. Artists are invited to submit a recent photographic series or body of work on a coherent theme or subject.

Three artists will be selected to receive the 9-month Residency Award by an international panel of curators with expertise in African photography

Submissions are now closed. We look forward to announcing the three artists selected for the Award very soon.

International Curator Panel:

Ala Kheir

Anne Nwakalor

John Fleetwood

Ala Kheir is a photographer based in Khartoum, Sudan. Through photography, Kheir actively engages with the city of Khartoum, creating personal perspectives and narratives about his immediate space. His work has been showcased in various African and worldwide spaces. Kheir runs The Other Vision (TOV), a photography platform that focuses on photography education and training in Sudan. Through this, he assists young photographers and connects Sudanese artists to the rest of the continent. Through TOV, Kheir engages with the public in an attempt to address social issues and change in Sudan.
Anne Nwakalor is the Founding Editor of No! Wahala Magazine is one of Africa's first-ever contemporary photography magazines dedicated to showcasing authentic visual stories by African creatives. She is also a Photo Editor and presently works as a Communication Officer within the art space in the UK.
John Fleetwood (b. 1970, South Africa) is a photography curator, educator, and director of Photo; a multi-operation platform for the development and promotion of socially engaged photography work, projects, photographers, and critical visual culture. He recently curated ‘Five Photographers: A tribute to David Goldblatt’ exhibited in various cities including Johannesburg, Maputo, and Bamako (2018-2019). In 2017, he was guest editor for Aperture’s Platform Africa edition. From 2002-2015 Fleetwood was the director of the Market Photo Workshop. He lives and works in Johannesburg.

The 3 selected award-winning artists will each receive:

An exhibition opportunity to exhibit their submitted work as part of the Contemporary African Photography Prize exhibition at Photo Museum Ireland in July/August 2024.
Curatorial mentoring from our expert curatorial team and selected guest mentors to develop their artistic practices and create a new body of work for exhibition at the end of the 9-month presidency as part of our New Talents Exhibition and publication in 2025

Specialist artists’ professional development and training workshops

About the Contemporary African Photography Prize:

The Contemporary African Photography Prize exhibition presents award-winning work by African artists globally - selected by an international panel of experts with specialist knowledge of African photography.

Photo Museum Ireland - supporting diverse artists' practices in Ireland.
This African-Irish photography Award is a new initiative developed as part of our wider Artists’ Diversity support programmes established in 2022. Since then we have supported residencies, artists’ commissions, training workshops and exhibition opportunities which include; the Diversity Commission in partnership with DCC and Creative Ireland for 5 artists in Dublin; Creative Ireland Traveller Wellbeing project led by Martin Beanz Warde, Silvina Sisterna and the Napantla project, a two-year DIversity residency for Barialai Khoshhal and outreach workshops for people with special needs.

Photo Museum Ireland is the leading voice for photography in Ireland. The institution is dedicated to fostering a dynamic culture of photographic practice across a broad-range of platforms. Established as ‘The Gallery of Photography’ in 1978 by John Osman, the organisation has grown to become one of Ireland’s most loved arts organisations.