Ireland at Venice
Biannually students from the MA in Visual Arts Practices intern as Project Managers supporting the work of the Irish Commissioner for the Venice Biennale. This internship opportunity began in 2005 and has continued with each Commissioner through to 2009.

Curatorial Session
In May 2009, the MA in Visual Arts Practices and Project Arts Centre with the support of Culture Ireland, were delighted to present 'Curatorial Session', a project in which four internationally acclaimed curators; Bart De Baere, Tone Olaf Nielsen, Raimundas Malašauskas and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev travelled to Dublin to conduct studio visits and to speak in a public forum responding to a series of questions posed by MAVIS students in relation to the field of curatorial practice. These questions are published in Curatorial Session: Reader – Inquiries into Curatorial Practice.

'now as the divine hour': the event in art and philosophy
The MA in Visual Arts Practices hosts GradCAM's Speaking Matters programme on Friday 24th October 2008. Participants include Dr Joseph Cohen, Dept of Philosophy, UCD, who will speak on Heidegger's The Origin of the Work of Art, Simon Morley, Artist and Theorist, Charlotte Moth, Artist, and Sinéad Hogan, Lecturer in Visual Art Practice, IADT. The session will be chaired by Tim Stott, NCAD research scholar at the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media. The session hosted by MAVIS at The LAB, is in room 7 on the 4th floor, 2-5pm.

Workshop for Artists and Curators: Programming and Exhibiting 16mm Film
One-day practical workshop on Saturday 3rd May 2008, for artists and curators interested in curating or programming 16mm film screenings for gallery and non-gallery spaces. The workshop, led by Pip Chodorov (Re:Voir / The Film Gallery) is an introduction to working with experimental film co-ops and labs, sourcing and programming of films.

A conversation on film and video distribution with Jonas Mekas, Moira Tierney, Pip Chodorov, Aoife Desmond and Maeve Connolly. February 2008. Discussion focused on the development of artist/filmmaker-led approaches to film and video distribution, from co-op structures in the 1960s to more recent developments. The conversation will explore some of the differences and tensions between these approaches and the curator-led model often associated with gallery, museum or biennial exhibitions.

Performing the Moving Image symposium with Iwona Blazwick, Gerard Byrne, Vaari Claffey, Maeve Connolly and Paul O'Neill. December 2006. Screenings and panel discussions focussing on visual artists who direct, script and choreograph others in live action performed for the camera.This project was generously supported by Critical Voices 3, The Arts Council.

Why Publish?; Art Publishing and Publishing by Artists with Atelier/David Smith, Maria Fusco, Claire O'Leary, Sarah Pierce, Richard West and Mick Wilson. April 2005. Five speakers involved in independent publishing will respond to the question "Why publish?' through a discussion about publishing's role in art practice. In the text Put About: A Critical Anthology On Independent Publishing (Book Works 2004), editor Maria Fusco posed the question "Why publish?" to fourteen parties involved in the production and distribution of printed matter. The varying responses collectively address social, spatial, political and economic issues that affect the will to publish. The day-long seminar in at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios will develop the themes raised in Put About and an accompanying symposium held at the Tate Modern 27 November 2004. Speakers are invited to respond to the question as a means to delve deeper into independent publishing as an alternative site of dissemination, experimentation, communication, and/or representation.

No Contest: A Symposium on Contemporary Art Criticism with Alex Coles, Maeve Connolly, Professor James Elkins, Joan Fowler, Brian Hand, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith and Mick Wilson. May 2004. This symposium has been organised in order to provide a forum for questioning the condition, role and value of contemporary art criticism. While reference will be made in the first instance to recent debates in journals ranging from October and Critical Inquiry to Art Monthly, it is hoped that the concerns will not be limited by the terms of debate already established. An important ambition of this symposium is to consider the possibilities for contest and disagreement in discussions and commentaries on contemporary visual art. Key questions will therefore relate to the extent to which contemporary criticism might allow for meaningful disagreement. Is the notion of 'criticism', for instance, a complicitous illusion? Has art criticism become 'writing without readers'? What role does 'judgement' have in current writings on art? What are the effects of 'dominant' critical idioms or strategies? Are there necessary conditions of criticism? Bringing together a number of critical voices from Ireland and beyond, this one-day event will allow for focused consideration of these and related questions.