MART MISSION STATEMENT 2017

MART is an artist-led, not for profit arts organisation founded in 2007 by Matthew Nevin & Ciara Scanlan. Our mission is to develop and promote contemporary art by providing creative platforms to support artists at all stages of their careers. With the help of a skilled team, we achieve this through our galleries, studios and creative platforms.

Gallery & Curation

Nevin & Scanlan have curated over 100 artists in events, exhibitions, festivals and art fairs across Ireland, UK, Europe, USA & Japan. In 2012 the pair embarked on a 16 month journey to transform the old Rathmines Fire Station, launching two galleries in 2013 as a new home for contemporary art in Ireland. MART primarily supports sculpture, video, new media, installation and performance, art making practices that break new ground, that test and stretch the material and immaterial, and challenge conventions of ‘the norm’. In 2016 eight Artists were signed to be represented by The MART Gallery in a first for the organisation. In 2017 MART will have a programme fully curated by Nevin & Scanlan that will reflect their ethos as an organisation.

Studios

We are the largest supplier of independent, affordable space for the arts, cultural and creative community in Dublin city. We now support over 120 members in seven studio buildings across Dublin. We operate on a not for profit basis, meaning that all profits raised from studio rentals are in-invested back into our mission to develop and promote contemporary art.

Platforms

In the past MART has run successful platforms for the showcase of contemporary art through our Hired Gallery Programme, Residency Space, Online Gallery, Project Space, and MART Experiments.  MART has received local and international Press through strong marketing drives.

Objectives:

• We are an artist-led, self-sustaining organisation for the development and promotion of contemporary art. We firmly believe in the self-determining artist and art organisation, as a vital societal and cultural catalyst.
• We practice facilitative and collaborative methods of curation and art production, led by and for the artist, and their practice.
• We develop creative platforms to support and challenge artists and as a means of promoting cultural leadership.
• We support contemporary art through public engagement, while providing opportunities for artists through local and international exhibitions
• We use methods of pooling resources, problem-solving, exchange and cooperation to resource art, develop and build artistic and civic communities.
• We advocate for contemporary art, and the artist, through engagement with civic bodies, political representatives, public funding bodies, local and national businesses, national and international cultural bodies and institutions.
• We seeks to create opportunities in which practitioners are encouraged to take risks and move beyond traditional models of exhibition and art-making.