About The LAB Gallery
The LAB was established by Dublin City Council in 2005 as a municipal arts hub, housing gallery, rehearsal and incubation spaces for a range of art forms.
The LAB Gallery supports emerging art practices and delivers a year round programme of free events for all ages. In addition to Dublin City Council, the LAB Gallery is supported by the Arts Council.
Exhibitions at the LAB Gallery
Exhibitions are selected from proposals and by direct invitation usually eighteen months in advance. We actively encourage collaboration across art forms and work with artists who are motivated by a strong line of enquiry. In line with the Dublin City Council Arts Plan, our focus is on working with artists at critical points in the development of their practice, providing a first solo show or an opportunity for a more established artist to try out something new for example.
Artists such as Vera Klute, Lee Welch and Bea McMahon had their first solo shows at the LAB. We also commission new writing with every exhibition and develop carefully curated events and education programmes to provide spaces to look closer, share, enjoy, play, chat, experiment and critically debate art and the ideas inherent in the exhibitions.
Partners
We would like to acknowledge the support of our key partners including GradCAM on a range of conferences and events; Create, NCAD, iadt and DIT on the Create Learning Development Programme, and in 2015, UCD Art in Science. In 2016 our key partners include the National Gallery of Ireland and National Museum of Ireland. Since 2008 we have hosted an MA programme from iadt, previously MAVIS and since 2014, Art Research Collaboration. A key programme at the LAB is our involvement in the arts education Project 20/20.
Education
The LAB is committed to programming events which expand artistic practice and learning. The following Education programmes are ongoing at The LAB Gallery.
IADT ARC MA
The Art and Research Collaboration (ARC) Master of Arts course at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) is a practice-based, research-focused taught programme delivered over two years, incorporating project partnerships with Dublin City Council Arts Office, led by the LAB, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Teaching runs September to June.
Create Learning Development Programme
The Learning Development Programme is a yearly initiative. It is an experiential learning programme for student artists engaging in socially engaging, collaborative practice. The National College of Art and Design in Thomas Street, Dublin initiated the Public Art Placement programme in 2002 in collaboration with Create.
The impetus behind the initiative began with the provocation: what happens when fine arts students collaborate with communities to produce an artwork?
Since then the programme has evolved year upon year, becoming the Learning Development Programme - a unique initiative between NCAD, IADT Dun Laoghaire and The LAB. Students and artists identify organisations, groups and communities with whom they propose to engage with through the programme. Create support the introductions and seeding of the resulting collaborative relationships. The programme results in an exhibition curated by the LAB, often held off-site.
Resources
You can browse and download publications produced by The LAB Gallery below.
Anthologies of new writing and essays are produced in conjunction with shows in The LAB Gallery space. Exhibition catalogues and programmes are also available to download.
