About Us

Void Art Centre’s overarching mission is to present high quality contemporary art and a public programme of engaging activities. We commission work by national and international mid-career artists, acting with a collaborative spirit by creating new and lasting partnerships.

In 2024, Void Art Centre commenced a living practice of Social Permaculture, in which our organisational structure is based on models of co-existence and co-creation as well as sustainable use of local resources (both monetary and non-monetary) such as public grants, voluntary commitments, mutual aid, commercial arrangement, and private sponsorship.

Void Art Centre’s ambition is to ensure our programmes and the organisation as a whole are sustainable and civic-engaged, entailing more attention and care towards the team, our resources and local environment. Responding to this ambition, Void Art Centre focuses on alternative ways of producing, distributing and presenting art projects. This includes responding to our locality, working within Derry and Northern Ireland to reflect the global changes we are all part of.

Like our internal working, our programming investigates ways of working together and collaborative and cooperative practices within the arts and with other sectors. We seek to form organic connections with the site of Derry and its audience.

Within our programming, we adopt a different use of time. Our activities include both one-off, recurrent and long term projects, with some projects spanning only the length of the exhibition, and others resulting in further research and public reflections. Some components of our programme run throughout the year, developing into long term projects across a multi-year period. Process is a key aspect of our programme, as we ensure our organisational approaches and programming is aligned and that our programme is integrated into Derry life, with onsite and offsite activities focusing on genuine connection rather than outcome-oriented working.

Our History

In January 2003, a group of artists in Derry formed (DADA) Derry’s Artists for Derry’s Art with a vision of creating a contemporary art space with the remit of showing established Irish and international artists. The vision for this space included artists’ studios and an education programme delivering an organisational ideology of ‘supporting artists at every stage of their career.’ The group secured Peace II funding through the Local Strategy Partnership and spent the next two years building the project, formulating an initial exhibition programme and supervising the refurbishment of the basement of the Old City Shirt Factory. In January 2005, the Void Art Centre – a non-profit limited company with charitable status opened its doors with its inaugural exhibition Peripheral Vision. In July 2015, after ten years, the gallery launched its newly refurbished and fully accessible space on the first floor of the Old City Shirt Factory.

In March 2021, Void Art Centre moved to its new gallery space in the city center of Derry, 10 Waterloo Place. This move has given the organisation a new visibility and puts visual arts at the heart of the city. It is a fully accessible space that we are always updating to make the space as inclusive as possible. Its inaugural exhibition was Before the Cypress Broke working with Beirut Artists Residency to exhibition over 17 artists from Beirut with an extensive public programme of talks and film screenings.

Void Art Centre has established an international reputation for its wide-ranging and challenging exhibition programme. 

In 2019, Void Art Centre commissioned Helen Cammock to make a film about women and the Civil rights movement in Derry, this film The Long Note was one of the recipients of the Turner Prize in 2019. In 2020, through a co-commission with Chisenhale Gallery artist Ima Abasi Okon was awarded a Turner Award.