The e v+ a Story

OPEN e v+ a

1977 Limerick-based artists initiate e v+ a as the best way their work can make direct collaborative contact with audiences. Ever since, e v+ a has remained an open-submission exhibition that encourages all artists worldwide to enter work in any and all materials, media, design practices and representational styles, genres, themes and concepts.

1979 an adjudication process is established that each year gives full curatorial authority to a single, internationally renown curator, usually an ‘outsider’, unfamiliar with the Irish art scene, whose sole decisions assess the submissions, select and lay out the exhibited works in the various venues, determine the awards and present a catalogue statement/essay on the whole e v+ a experience.

1992 Under the guidance of successive adjudicators the annual OPEN e v+ a moves out beyond Limerick’s formal art gallery spaces into alternative ‘gallery’ venues and off-site spaces in centre city Limerick and beyond.

YOUNG e v+ a

1986 This initiative annually brings together young adults and contemporary artists in a series of workshops that lead to exhibitions presented in a variety of formats.

1989 The YOUNG e v+ a programme establishes Artists in the Gallery, daylong encounters between e v+ a artists and audiences, young and old, who discuss the issues and practices at the heart of contemporary art.

INVITED e v+ a

1994 INVITED e v+ a, a special section is initiated every other year in which the OPEN e v+ a adjudicator of the year personally invites the participation of artists of international standing and experience, curates and places their work in Limerick City and its environs to provide an instructive counterpart to the OPEN e v+ a section.

The e v+ a colloquies on contemporary art and culture

1997 The e v+ a Colloquies begin as an event that alternates every other year with INVITED e v+ a. It consists of a weekend programme of informal discussion and argument among returning past e v+ a adjudicators, invited guests, artists and audiences devoted to making sense and meaning out of how contemporary art and culture interact.

Now at the close of its third decade, e v+ a remains an artist-centred exhibition, the best of its kind in Ireland, open to all artists everywhere and to work in all media, materials, methods, styles and practices.