Today marks the official end of our Creative Europe funded project, Artist-Run Network Europe 2020-2023 (ARNE). All of us at Ormston House would like to take the opportunity to thank our project partners, participants, and funders as we reflect on the activities and achievements of the past three years.

Building on the experience gathered by the Artist Initiatives Meetings (AIM) network, Ormston House and six other partners came together to form Artist-Run Network Europe. The project officially kicked off in October 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. The aim of the project was to strengthen the self-organised artist-run sector in Europe with focus on international cooperation and capacity building. Ormston House’s participation was co-funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and Limerick Arts Office.

Since then, the ARNE project has driven the creation of courses, conferences, experimental workshops, publications, exhibitions, international studio visits, and more. In addition to these activities, the platform Artist-Run Resource Centre (ARRC) was created. ARRC functions as a library of shared knowledge and applied tools for artists and arts workers throughout Europe, uploaded by its users. 

Through ARNE, Ormston House’s Niamh Brown has led a programme of research with a focus on the social value of artist-run initiatives. Invited researchers include Dylan Ryan, Jane Morrow, Ashling McGrory and Dr. Simon Thompson, and were also joined by international researchers Maite Pinto, Alice Máselníková and Rob Knijn. The result of this research can be seen in our recent publication A Matter of Value. You can access A Matter of Value here.

Throughout the project, Niamh has participated in international activities programmed by the project partners. These include conferences, talks, discussion groups, and visits to other artist-run initiatives. Ormston House also selected Sorcha McNamara to participate in the Black Holes residency organised by Totaldobže Art Centre. You can read Sorcha’s reflection of the residency, Sunken Velvet Universe here.

As part of the project’s evaluation Ormston House produced a series of podcasts with project participants and partners. Niamh spoke with Belinda Morén (artist, Best Before Collective), Pam Grombacher (co-director, Juxtapose Art Fair), Stuart Mayes (artist, Black Holes), Lina Rukevičiūtė (project partner, The Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association), Rob Knijn (project partner, Alternative Art Guide), and Dylan Ryan (curator, The Oobleck Collective).

As we wrap up ARNE, we would like to thank the following: our project partners: Candyland, Stockholm (SE), The Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association, Vilnius (LT), >Top E.V., Berlin (DE), The Syndicate of Creatures, Copenhagen (DK), Alternative Art Guide, The Hague (NL), Totaldobže Art Centre, Riga (LV); our associate partners: Artist-Run Alliance, Berlin/Tel Aviv (DE/IL), Juxtapose Art Fair, Aarhus (DK), Fine Art and Department of Visual Arts at Konstfack, Stockholm (SE), Supermarket – Independent Art Fair, Stockholm (SE). Ormston House would also like to thank all of the artists, researchers, participants, and artist-run initiatives who have contributed to the project.