Void Art Centre

💐 Looking back at the launch of Re-turning 💐 A belated thank you to everyone who joined us for the launch of 'Re-turning' back at the end of April! 'Re-turning' further extends our use of the metaphor of composting to think about how different timelines melt into one another across our programming 🪱 Rather than suggesting that projects have finished once an exhibition is deinstalled or when the aftermath of an event has been cleaned up, Re-turning seeks to highlight our commitment to supporting research in the long term, as well as a programme that hopes for sustained civic engagement and continued conversations outside of an outcome period. The project continues at Void until Saturday 30 May 2026, with several events taking place before then 👉 Take a look at the link in our bio for more information. ~~~ This launch also marked the last day of our previous Director Viviana Checchia, who has left Void to join Metal, an organisation working nationally and internationally, as well as within communities, to inspire positive change through art and creativity 🌱 During her three years at the organisation, Viviana worked with the team to think through ways social permaculture could shape our internal and external working processes, creating space for critical enquiry about the role a visual arts organisation can play in society. Whilst she has now left our shores, we're excited to see what the future holds for her in her new position at Metal 🤝 ~~~ Photos: Charlie Cassidy

The next meeting of Queer Writers' Circle will be on May 27th from 5.30pm until 7.30pm at @voidartcentre All queers, all writing, all welcome! We hope to see you there 💖🫡

👋Void Art Centre are hiring for the position of Interim Director👋 🗓️ Deadline: Monday 25 May 2026, 11.59pm 🔗 More information, link in our bio Void Art Centre is an arts organisation and active civic contributor, creating meaningful connections between art & society, working within Derry and Northern Ireland to reflect the global changes we are all part of. Void’s ambition is to ensure our programmes and the organisation as a whole are sustainable and community-engaged, entailing attention and care towards the team, our resources and local communities and our environment 🍃 Responding to this ambition, Void focuses on alternative ways of producing, distributing and presenting art projects which respond to our locality even as we present international-level work. The Interim Director is responsible for the overall management of Void Art Centre and its general programme for the duration of his/her appointment. 🤝 In conjunction with the team, they will be involved in organisational planning such that activities which have been committed to are undertaken and that financial management, people management, and programming decisions are made to satisfy the requirements of funders and the organisation’s overall mission. This may also include planning for activities which fall beyond the term of the interim role. This is an opportunity for someone with strong leadership and team-building experience, as well as an understanding of the visual arts sector, to gain experience leading the organisation and its programmes on an interim basis. 📧 To apply: Send CV and cover letter to [email protected] 🗓️ Deadline for applications: Monday 25 May 2026, 11.59pm ℹ️ For a full job description, please visit our website.

REMINDER! 💭Memory Sessions: The Orchard Gallery💭 🗓️ Thursday 28 May 2026, 6-8pm at Void 🔗 Register for free via link below We’re looking forward to inviting you to join PhD Researcher Ashab Ahmad for a Memory Session on the Orchard Gallery (1978 to 2003), Derry’s first contemporary visual arts space. During the event, Ashab will display photographs, documents, publications, and articles on the Orchard Gallery that have been retrieved from archival material at Void Art Centre 📦 Participants are encouraged to bring in any items in their own possession that they feel would be relevant to the discussion. Whether you fancy a casual chat with other participants or a more critical consideration of lessons for the current context, this event seeks to stimulate new conversations about the Orchard Gallery within the city. This is an opportunity to share your experiences of the gallery over refreshments, as well as to discuss the gallery’s programme and its legacy 🏆 Everyone is welcome regardless of whether they remember the Orchard Gallery or simply wish to learn more about its history. ~~~~~ /e/memory-sessions-the-orchard-gallery-tickets-1987400645831?aff=oddtdtcreator

👋 Reminder: Join us for our upcoming group Arpentage which will look at the book ‘Arkive City’👋 🗓️ Wednesday 6 May 2026, 6-8pm at Void Register at the link in our bio above to join us at our upcoming Arpentage ⤴️ This session will look at the text ‘Arkive City’ edited by Julie Bacon. The text was recommended by Void’s PhD Researcher Ashab Arif Ahmad who has created a research installation in our current show ‘Re-turning’. ‘Arkive City’ features transcripts and essays that provide historical, theoretical and practical case studies into archive management, as well as insights into the artist-led culture of archiving practices 🗃️ An Arpentage is a method of reading emerging in Italian workers’ circles. We will cut the book into sections, reading one section each before sharing our thoughts with one another. This way, we will read the book together 🤝 🔗 To attend, register at the link in our bio above.

Following our recent partnership announcement, we’re excited to introduce the full cohort of artists joining us this year through the TAAS x Void Art Centre fellowship. These ten artists bring a wide range of practices, perspectives, and approaches into the community, each contributing to the kind of dialogue, experimentation, and sustained exchange that this program is built to support.

💭Memory Sessions: The Orchard Gallery 🗓️Thursday 28 May 2026, 6-8pm at Void 🔗 Sign up at the link in our bio above Join PhD Researcher Ashab Ahmad for a Memory Session on the Orchard Gallery (1978 to 2003), Derry’s first contemporary visual arts space. This is an opportunity to share your experiences of the gallery over some warm refreshments, as well as to discuss the gallery’s programme and its legacy 🌟 Ashab will display photographs, documents, publications, and articles on the Orchard Gallery that have been retrieved from archival material at the Void Art Centre. Participants are encouraged to bring in any items in their own possession that they feel would be relevant to the discussion 🤝 Everyone is welcome regardless of whether they remember the Orchard Gallery or simply wish to learn more about its history. Whether you fancy a casual chat with other participants or a more critical consideration of lessons for the current context, this event seeks to stimulate new conversations about the Orchard Gallery within the city. ~~ ⬆️Register for free via link in bio above

📦 Collective Arpentage Reading: Arkive City edited by Julie Bacon 📦  🗓️ Wednesday 6 May 2026, 6-8pm at Void 🔗 Free Registration at the link above. Join us for our next Arpentage Collective Reading as part of our project Re-turning which recognises the many hands involved in shaping Void’s past, present and future 🤝 This project includes a contribution by PhD researcher Ashab Ahmad, who will present material from Orchard Gallery, Derry's first contemporary visual arts organisation. To expand on Ashab's contribution we will read Arkive City, an anthology edited by Julie Bacon which investigates the role of archives in contemporary society 📤 Contributions in the book map out important questions and shifts in interest that have arisen from the changing role of archiving in culture and its relationship with the arts, through their work curating exhibitions in museums, (de)constructing (art) history, running library and government archives, initiating archives in arts organisations and shaping individual practice. ℹ️ An arpentage is a method of reading that originated in Italian workers' circles, aimed at sharing knowledge collectively. The process involves cutting up a book, with each person reading one section. We recount our sections out loud, and with this, read the book together. This way, books that include theory become more accessible and generate conversation.

🌀 REMINDER: Closing Circles, Reading Group 🌀 📆 Tomorrow, Wednesday 29 April 2026, 5.30pm-7.30pm 🧑‍💻 Online via Zoom 🔗 Free Registration - link in bio! Join us tomorrow for a reading group responding to the ways in which institutional governance and practices of production are being re-configured within arts organisations. This week, we will collectively read small texts in the larger publication 'An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping', edited by Erin Segal, Chris Hoff and Julie Cho ✍️ No preparation necessary as we will read together. 📚 This marks the third in the series, with selected readings and listenings having a focus on the alternative ways in which we can produce, present and distribute art projects, as well as question modes of hyper-production and novelty within organisational models. The reading groups reflect Void Art Centre’s ongoing transition, with Social Permaculture models shaping our internal and external working practices. We hope to make facets of this transition public, sharing readings that rethink embedded modes of institutional practice for collective discussion with peers, future friends and likeminded practitioners. By creating opportunities to learn together, we hope to think through potential models for future organisations. ℹ️ This reading group will take online, with readings and a zoom link will be sent upon registering at the link in our bio above.

💌 Reminder: Launch of Re-turning 💌 🗓️ Saturday 25 April 2026, 6-8pM 🔗 More info at the link in our bio For the past two weeks, we’ve been busy installing Re-turning at Void Art Centre - which opens this Saturday, 25 April 2026 from 6-8pm. ‘Re-turning’ is a programme and exhibitionary project that reflects our previous exhibition ‘Composting for the future’ which introduced our audiences to Void’s intention to work as a social permaculture organisation, thinking through the principles of Earth Care, Fair Share and People Care 🪱 Drawing on the analogy of composting, ‘Re-turning’ reflects the motion of earthworms as they burrow through soil, aerating and breathing new life into organic matter. Likewise, the project seeks to bring together timelines, recognising the many hands involved in shaping Void’s past, present and future. 🤝 Contributions to ‘Re-turning’ include: PhD student Ashab Arif Ahmad who is creating a presentation of material from Orchard Gallery’s archives held at Void Art Centre; artists Daniel Godínez Nivon, Stéphane V Bottéro, Joey O’Gorman, and Barbara Steveni; architects Matthew McAlister-Colacio, Oliver Hopkinson and Oileán Galligan, researchers Roy Nelson and Kathryn Nelson; and our series of reading groups on institutional practice ‘Closing Circles’. See you at the launch 🍻 BYOB! ~~ 🔗 Check out our website for more information on our upcoming programme.

Viviana Checchia is the new Director of Metal Peterborough and Cambridgeshire ⭐ Viviana is a curator, programmer, and researcher active internationally, and before joining us, Viviana was the Director of Void Art Centre in Derry, where she and the Void team created a living practice of Social Permaculture. Hear more from Viviana below: “I am so excited to be joining Metal in Peterborough & Cambridgeshire! I feel like I have been waiting for this moment for more than a decade: the opportunity to lead an organisation for which social engagement is the core mission. I am also super-happy to join a great creative team working across the three Metal locations and look forward very much to learning more about what's been done and what we might do now for the social impact of art. I see this as an opportunity to test my citizen-led methodologies further and to implement my curatorial social-permaculture approach at Metal.” - Viviana Checchia, Director of Metal Peterborough & Cambridgeshire You can read the full announcement over our website and join us as we welcome Viviana to the team! Image credit: Shakira Nelis, 2026. ID: Viviana smiling at the camera, leaning on a glass railing with her arms crossed, wearing a black shirt and a large ring on her left hand. #MetalPeterborough @voidartcentre @viviana_checchia @vessel_artproject @unioftheartslondon @march.intl @timespan_helmsdale @delfinafdn @universityofgothenburg @cca_glasgow

👋 Introducing Pádraig Ó Gráda to the team at Void Art Centre We’re delighted to welcome Pádraig Ó Gráda to Void, who joined us as Digital and Engagement Assistant at the end of March. Pádraig (he/him) is an actor and Irish language speaker who has worked extensively in TV, film and stage. With experience working in the film sector, he is keen to bring his skillset to our digital and on-the-ground communication. Previously, Pádraig has worked at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Raw Nerve Productions and Waddell Media in a number of roles including Events Programmer, Researcher and Animator.