Welcome to The National Irish Visual Arts Library

The National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) is a public research resource dedicated to the documentation of 20th and 21st century Irish visual art and design. 

NIVAL collects, stores and makes accessible for research an unparalleled collection of documentation about Irish art in all media.  NIVAL's collection policy includes Irish visual art from the whole island as well as Irish art abroad and non-Irish artists working in Ireland.   Information is acquired on artists, designers, galleries, arts organisations and institutions, critics and other related subjects.  The collection contains documentary material in all formats including books, catalogues, videos, slides, artists' papers and ephemera in print and digital format.

NIVAL Update, March 2023: Reader Access Days

NIVAL is open for reader's appointments on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays opening hours 10am - 5pm. Access to NIVAL is strictly by appointment only. Please see our Opening Hours and Access page for details on how NIVAL is facilitating safe access to collection materials and how to request an appointment.

Call Out for Participants, Archiving Plurality: A Collaborative Process

At NIVAL we are initiating a review process aiming to further embrace the island of Ireland’s plurality of voices and cultural richness in our collection, in order to more accurately reflect our society today. 

We are looking for artists and designers based in the island of Ireland that identify as non-Irish, dual-national, non-Irish and/or non-UK national (NI-based), and/or coming from cultural/gender/ethnic minority backgrounds to take part in a series of focus groups in March-April 2023.

Artists and designers will collaborate with the current researcher-in-residency in the first phase of the pilot project "Archiving Plurality: a collaborative process", initiating conversations and co-developing propositions around inclusive methodologies to be implemented in the research project.  

We recognise that ‘cultural diversity’ can be perceived as a contested, often tokenistic term, as visual artist Michelle Williams Gamaker puts it, ‘diverse’ bodies are ‘Tired-of-Being-Diverse’. Through this project, we are committed to address inequality and disproportionate representation in our collection while giving agency to arts practitioners to directly shape the research since its beginnings.


This is a paid opportunity. Further information on the focus groups and how to apply can be found here.

Deadline for expressions of interest: 14th March 2023 (midnight).