We’re on the hunt for a new Curator of Visual Arts!

Download the full recruitment pack here.

Project Arts Centre is beginning the search for a new Curator for our Visual Arts Programme.

Project Arts Centre is Ireland’s first arts centre: an independent and ambitious multidisciplinary organisation in the heart of Dublin with a local, national and international remit. Project is a home for contemporary arts, a resource for artists and a critical hub. Project works with artists across all art forms to make and present extraordinary work that inspires and provokes audiences.

Project Arts Centre was founded in 1966 as Project 67. When the founders of Project came together they did so with the philosophy that a creative person is capable of managing their own affairs; Project was an organisation set up, managed and governed by artists – its founding spirit was centred on artists at a time when art was created in established institutions. It became a home for the independents; for artists whose work challenged the establishment and the academy. Project was created at a time of change in our country and in the wider world. Looking to the future is embedded in our DNA. Over the years, Project’s personality has always reflected these values, whether embracing the punk movement, presenting edgy contemporary performance or confounding audiences’ ideas of what constitutes an exhibition. We are proud of this legacy but it is not a history that lies heavy on our shoulders; it is a history of reinvention, of evolution, of looking to the future, while reflecting on the present – and of change.

Project Arts Centre is in the fourth year of a five-year strategy, WORK (2022 – 2026). The main focus of the strategy has been threefold: to work towards developing warmer, more flexible, and more inclusive spaces; to provide improved opportunities and conditions for both artists and the public; and to secure adequate resources to enable us to deliver on our ambitions.

A commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion is threaded through the strategy and this influences the way in which we approach all of our work in every department and at every level of our institutional structure. You can read our policy Towards Equality Diversity and Inclusion (TEDI) here. We want to nurture and support artists to realise their boldest ideas and to fulfil their ambitions to reach publics locally, nationally and internationally. We also want to create opportunities for many publics to interact in a physical and conceptual space which is safe and open to all.

The Curator of Visual Arts, a senior member of the Project team, plays a key role in the successful delivery of these aims, foregrounding care, respect, accessibility and hospitality in all of their work, whether with artists, visiting individuals, or with local groups and communities. Read our full strategic plan here.

Reporting to the Artistic Director and Executive Director, but working autonomously, The Curator of Visual Arts (Curator) is a key position at Project with responsibility for leading on the vision for and delivery of the organisation’s visual arts programme. The ideal candidate will have:

Applications are welcomed for the position which is for a fixed-term of 4 years with a 6 month probation period. Project is open to new ways of working, new forms of curatorial practice and proposals that explore alternative methodologies.

Project welcomes applications from everybody but would like to encourage applications by Curators from a diversity of national, ethnic or cultural groups (including, but not limited to, Asian, Black, Traveller and minority ethnic, refugees, people with disabilities, working-class and LGBTQI+). We are committed to accessibility and want to make sure that our spaces and processes are accessible to all. Please let us know in your application if you have any particular access requirements.

Applications should include a letter of interest (including a curatorial vision/outline of yourprogramme – to a maximum of 2 pages A4) and a CV including two referees, and any relevant documentation (to a maximum of 5 pages A4).