The AIB Award embraces a progressive spectrum of art media and provides crucial support to emerging artists, writes Marianne O’ Kane Boal
Established in 2000, the AIB Award is the most substantial and prestigious visual art prize in Ireland. Now in its seventh year, the award’s importance resides in a number of factors: it is a comprehensive accolade, artists must be nominated by the country’s publicly funded visual arts venues, who later show the artist’s work if successful. The winner receives 20,000 towards the creation of a new body of work and a significant monograph catalogue to accompany their exhibition. Venue-based nomination ensures sufficient interest and investment of the gallery in an artist’s work. The adjudicated award is acknowledged as a progressive mode of recognition for a broad range of contemporary media; photography, painting, sculpture, textiles, performance, installation, and new technologies
