About NIAN

 

Northern Irish Art Network (NIAN) is curatorial, research and commissioning platform aimed at supporting the development of art practice, critical discourse and scholarship within, and related to, the North of Ireland. Based in Belfast, we are the resident programmers at PS2 arts organisation.

The organisation is focused on identifying, sharing and connecting multiple strands of research on contemporary and historical Northern Irish art and making that research accessible to the public through exhibitions, publications and events. We aim to develop the international profile of Northern Irish art practice and scholarship, in addition to creating opportunities for curators, artists and researchers.

Initiated as a research platform as part of the British Art Network (supported by Tate and Paul Mellon), NIAN was born out of a frustration at the lack of critical attention and recognition given to Northern Irish art.

Positioning the organisation as a critical friend, an agitator, and vehicle for new ways of working, our role as an independent organisation now extends to commissioning new research, consultation/advisory services, arts programming and advocating for the arts in Northern Ireland. 

A contested term in itself, ‘Northern Irish’ Art is often found on the periphery of wider national discussions on Irish or British art. However, with Brexit, the centenary of the partition of Ireland, the approaching 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and continued debates around national identity, (de)colonisation and borders, there has never been a more important time to address this rich and complex subject area.

Largely, but incorrectly, viewed as a place of simplistic binaries, NIAN works to actively to disrupt this notion of Northern Ireland by creating space for conversations around overlooked practices (eg., queer Northern Irish art; feminist practices, art by BAME artists; pre-/and/post- conflict practices) as well as political and Troubles related art.

Working in a highly responsive, collaborative manner, we conduct much of our work through partnership with artists, arts organisations and universities. We have developed projects with institutions including The Courtauld, Tate, Golden Thread Gallery, Ulster Museum, Gallery of Photography Dublin, and Belfast Photo Festival. These have included talks, online event programmes, tours, networking sessions, and commissioned films. We have upcoming projects with Imperial War Museum and The Getty LA, and a major symposium with The Courtauld in 2022 on ‘Northern Ireland’s Feminist and Queer Art Histories’. 

Through this work we aim to:

 

  • Foster cross-institutional partnerships

  • Elevate the national and international reputation of art from Northern Ireland

  • Give voice to the complexities and nuances of Northern Irish art and culture

  • Encourage wider public recognition and discussion of Northern Irish art

  • Advance critical discourse through commissioning scholarly writing/research on Northern Irish art

  • Make art discourse more publicly accessible and understandable through partnered events/tours/workshops

  • Encourage curiosity and educate publics about the place, politics and art of Northern Ireland, introducing them to our rich, but complex history through the work of artists

  • Enhance institutional capabilities and willingness to exhibit and interpret art from the North of Ireland by working in an advisory capacity with curators/ museums/galleries.