Calling all artists! Open call for the Thoor Ballylee Artist in Residence 2025
The Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society, supported by Galway County Council Arts Office is hosting an Artist-in-Residence programme this summer in The Studio at Thoor Ballylee.
Following two years of success for our Artist in Residence programme in 2023 and 2024, Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society is delighted to offer a visual arts residency this summer, running from 26 July to 9 August.
The Thoor Ballylee artist residency highlights the various talents of W.B. Yeats’s family and celebrates the talents of his siblings, Jack, Lily, and Elizabeth Yeats as well as their father, the painter John Butler Yeats. The focus this year will be on visual arts, textiles, embroidery and printing.
Artists working in any of these areas are encouraged to apply. The deadline for applications is Friday 6 June.
About Thoor Ballylee
Described by Seamus Heaney as the most important public building in Ireland, Thoor Ballylee, a Hiberno-Norman tower nestled on a river bank in Ballylee, near Gort in County Galway, is a place of history, poetry, and idyllic beauty. Surrounded by lush landscape. the poet W. B. Yeats spent many summers with his family here and was inspired there to write some of his best work making the tower his permanent symbol.
The Studio at Thoor Ballylee, right across from the tower, opened in 2019 as a space for educational and cultural workshops.
What the residencies offer:
For the two-week residency, the successful candidate will receive accommodation and a daily stipend of €80. Accommodation will be located in Gort, approximately 7 kilometres from Thoor Ballylee. While it is not essential, it is useful if the successful candidate has their own transport. If this isn’t possible, then a small subsidy will be provided for transport to Thoor Ballylee. Transportation arrangements and costs are paid by the successful candidate between their home and the accommodation in Gort.
The artist has access to The Studio at Thoor Ballylee where they can work during their residency. The Studio is available during opening hours of Thoor Ballylee, from 10am to 5pm every day.
What the artists provide:
During the residency, the artist engages with local artists in their genre at agreed times. They are also expected to engage with the wider public by offering a workshop and/or holding a demonstration and/or exhibition of their work.
When is the deadline?
The deadline for applications is Friday 6 June 2025 and the successful candidate will be notified later in the month, by Monday 23 June.
How do I apply?
Send the following items in PDF format to yeatsstudioresidency@gmail.com
- Covering letter – briefly describe your artistic practice and how your work would connect with and benefit from the residency.
- Curriculum Vitae
- Images of your work or a link to website
- Confirm that you will be available to undertake the residency from 26 July to 9 August.
The closing date for receipt of applications is: Friday 6 June 2025
Funded by the Galway County Council Arts Office
To learn more about the work of The Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society, please explore the other sections of our website: https://yeatsthoorballylee.org/
