WHAT ARTSPACE DOES:

• provides and maintains quality studio space for our current artists
• increases facilities, services, resources and information for the group
• assists emerging artists through the guest artist programme
• maintains an educational programme through a series of workshops, talks and open days
• formulates exchanges with other artists, studios and arts organisations in Ireland and abroad
• develops contacts with corporate buyers and members of the business community
• functions as an information centre for local, national and international artists and deals with queries for members of the public

THE ARTSPACE EXCHANGE PROGRAMME:

From 1996 to 1999, ARTSPACE organised an Artists Exchange Programme between Ireland, France and Germany, with residencies, workshops and exhibitions in each of the participating countries.

In 2000, ARTSPACE was invited to participate in Millenium Images, a successful American-Irish cultural exchange. This involved a residency in Seattle, culminating in three well-received exhibitions.

If you are interested in being involved in future exchange programmes, please contact us:
artspacegalway@eircom.net

ARTSPACE FACILITIES:

• 18 Studios

• Print Room

• Dark Room

• Multi Media Room

• Photographic equipment

• Internet access-Broadband

• Workshop Room

• Exhibition / Installation / Performance Area

• Administration Facilities

• Library 

Artspace - A Profile
During this year’s Galway Arts Festival, ARTSPACE STUDIOS will mark their 21st anniversary with a 
major exhibition of work by present and former members, some sixty artists in all. The coming of 
age of the city’s oldest, most established artists’ collective is an occasion for celebration indeed: 
both remaining founding members who had been involved in setting up ARTSPACE STUDIOS over 
two decades ago and others who joined them in the course of the years and who kept it going 
through sheer hard work and dedication are to be congratulated on their enthusiasm, perseverance 
and the generosity they have shown to new artists applying for membership in order to obtain a 
workspace, support from others and exposure of their work. 
 
Since 1986 when ARTSPACE STUDIOS was created as an independent, artist-led organisation and 
service provider with its own statutes and a board consisting of artists only, many changes have 
taken place. Having led a precarious, nomadic existence for ten years during which ARTSPACE 
STUDIOS had to move from premises to premises within the city and fight a constant battle trying 
to meet rising rent expenditures or else face eviction, it quickly became clear to members that all 
dreams of being given permission to restore old warehouses to create an “artists’ haven” with 
sculpture garden and galleries in the medieval centre of Galway would have to be abandoned. Ten 
years ago ARTSPACE STUDIOS finally settled in a unit in Liosbán industrial estate where they were 
able to secure a ten year lease. During this period of stability the number of studios has grown to 
eighteen, thirteen of which are located in Liosbán and five in the Black Box, and there are now twenty 
three artists sharing them, six of whom are members and seventeen are guest artists. 
Needless to say, recognition by and support from the Arts Council was most welcome and due to its 
generous grant it has been possible to meet the multiple financial demands that come with being a 
reputable, professional group of artists living and working within a civic space, something which has 
also been acknowledged by Galway Corporation. 
ARTSPACE STUDIOS’ many varied activities, their involvement in the community through giving 
workshops, opening their studios to the public on open days etc., and enabling young artists just 
out of college to pursue their artistic careers, have put them firmly on the city’s map of independent 
arts organisations. It is impossible to imagine Galway without the enormous creative impulses 
emanating from this and other like-minded groups which have benefited the city in many different 
ways and without which it would be a much impoverished place.
What I had written for the catalogue of the first ever exhibition of ARTSPACE STUDIOS held in their 
beautiful warehouse attic in Forster Street – the building has long been replaced by a hotel – i.e. 
that much of Galway’s flair and attractiveness depends on the dedication and stamina of individuals 
or groups within the artistic community who possess imagination, wit and vision, still hold true today, 
especially at a time when the physical space available to projects which are not primarily of a 
commercial nature is dwindling rapidly or financially beyond reach due to exploding ground prices.
Little wonder, therefore, that anyone wishing to visit the ARTSPACE STUDIOS in Galway will have to be 
prepared for an odyssey around the carriageways, roundabouts and industrial estates of Galway until 
they will come upon the blue ARTSPACE STUDIOS sign on a low factory-type building in Liosbán 
industrial estate which also houses a chair lifts company, a car tyre repair shop, a hair and beauty 
supplier and a piano retailer. The area looks like it was built overnight and might disappear again 
tomorrow. It is typical of the vigorous growth of such estates on the periphery of Irish towns. An 
absolute minimum of planning or aesthetic considerations have been applied to the creation of this 
jumble of warehouses, retailers, multi-storey car parks and bank buildings and it is probably the last 
place on earth where one might expect to find Galway’s finest artists’ collective. However, the 
premises in the functional building are spacious, comfortable and bright and comprise 13 individual 
studios with excellent facilities for members and guest artists, a print room with printing press, a 
fully equipped dark room, a multi-media room with iMac, final cut pro and scanner as well as digital 
SLR, camcorder, tripod, Dell computer with broadband internet access etc. There are also a workshop 
room with morso cutter and underpinner, an exhibition and performance area, as well as the 
administrator’s office and a library.Many ARTSPACE members have made their names nationally 
and internationally over the years, they have created lasting international contacts and fruitful 
exchanges with artists in countries like Germany, France and the United States. The artists’ 
collective has gone from strength to strength without changing its ethos of mutual support and the 
promotion of new cutting-edge work. 
For this 21st anniversary exhibition which will take place in the Galway Technical Institute in July 
submission have come from places as distant as Hong Kong or the United States, from London, 
from other European countries and of course  from Ireland. It is in gratitude for and appreciation of 
their existence that I wish them all the success they deserve and many more anniversary exhibitions 
in years to come.
 
Eva Bourke.