ARTISTS’ DIVERSITY RESIDENCY
African-Irish Artist Residency Award 2024-25
The African-Irish Artist Residency Award 2024-25 is the latest edition of our Diversity Residency programme established in 2022. The African-Irish Artist Residency Award is a prestigious initiative established by Photo Museum Ireland to support and amplify the voices of African-Irish artists and those with African heritage living in Ireland. This workplace residency award seeks to foster creativity, artistic exchange, and professional growth by providing artists with the resources and opportunities needed to advance their artistic practices. This award also provides a platform for the artists to develop and present their work. Across the 12-month Artists’ Development Residency, award-winning artists Ishmael Claxton, Sabrina Faria, and Tolu Ogunware will avail of free mentoring by leading African and Irish Curators. Each artist will be offered a bespoke range of targeted support to support them in developing and expanding their practices.
Photo Museum Ireland Residency Benefits:
1. Year-long supported development programme:
- Monthly group review sessions with Photo Museum Ireland curators to support the development of new work (see timetable provided).
- Mentorship sessions with leading Irish and international curators insert names
- Advice sessions with leading curators and photography experts.
- Artists’ Continuous Professional Development Training to include: workshops on archiving their practice, workflow and file management, preparation for print, funding applications, and professional practice advice on applying for funding and management of finances.
2. Free access to pro-production facilities:
- Access to production facilities at Photo Museum Ireland, including our state-of-the-art digital suite and fully serviced darkroom, to support the creation of new works by the Artist during the residency period.
- 5 days of free access to our pro-scanning facilities, valued at €1,200.
- 5 days of free darkroom access, valued at €375.
3. Exhibition opportunity in our annual Talents Showcase exhibition:
- All production and framing costs are covered by Photo Museum Ireland.
- Artists’ fees are paid & all works are retained by artists.
- Promotion across all platforms with artist features and takeovers.
African-Irish Award winning artists 2025:
Diversity Commission 2025
Presented in partnership with the Irish Photo Network, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
In 2024 Photo Museum Ireland and the Irish Photo Network partners – Belfast Exposed Gallery, Belfast Photo Festival and Source Magazine offered an exciting €5000 commission to support the development of new work reflecting on the important themes of AI, Climate Action and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.
This bursary provides targeted support for underrepresented artistic voices, a growing
segment of the Irish population, north and south. In addition, the partner organisations and guest curator Anne Nwakalor, an international expert on African photography, is offering a programme of mentorship as part of our ongoing commitment to professional development and skill-sharing across the photography sector.
Submissions were reviewed by the network partners and guest curator Anne Nwakalor. A total of 43 submissions were received. Artist Niamh Barry was selected as the overall winner.
The Irish Photo Network was established by Photo Museum Ireland, Belfast Exposed Gallery, Belfast Photo Festival and Source Magazine in 2022 with funding from the Cooperation with Northern Ireland Scheme of the Department of Tourism, Culture Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.
Past Residencies
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; the Creative Ireland Traveller Wellbeing project led by Martin Beanz Warde and Silvina Sisterna; the Napantla project; a two-year Diversity residency for Barialai Khoshhal; and outreach workshops for people with special needs. We believe that great photography is for everyone, and we are committed to supporting the creative potential within the African-Irish community.n also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.