About IRIS

The Iris contemporary arts network has been created as part of Landscapes Cities People a three-year, European-funded collaborative project of exhibitions, conferences, audience development and education activities.

The Landscape, Cities, People project will build and broaden audiences for contemporary visual art by creating a sustainable model for Audience Development. It also works to improve the quality of arts education services and increase access to those services for young people, marginalised people and communities; and enables visual arts professionals to engage with the audiences, markets and work-based opportunities in the cross border region.

Its working methods and outcomes will be: ‘catching up’ by sharing expertise more evenly across national boundaries, joint working to create strategies for sustainable development and build new audiences; joint working to develop (and market) contemporary art as a new tourism product adding value to the existing cultural and heritage tourist offer; joint working to improve the quality of and access to services; joint working to improve professional competencies and access to work opportunities for cultural workers.