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family · Monday 13 July 2026 · 10:00am 
Visual Carlow Summer Art Camp for Children
At Visual Carlow · Old Dublin Road, Carlow Town, Co. Carlow
At Visual Carlow · Old Dublin Road, Carlow Town, Co. Carlow
If your child loves making things and you want them doing something genuinely creative over the summer rather than staring at a screen, Visual Carlow’s summer art camp is worth booking early. Running across a full week in July, it is aimed at children aged 7 to 12 and is led by professional artists working across painting, sculpture, printmaking and mixed media. The camp keeps numbers deliberately small so each child gets proper attention, not just a seat in a crowded room.
Each day at Visual Carlow the children work through a mix of art-making disciplines - drawing, painting, print and sculpture - with sessions structured so they build on each other over the five mornings. The artists running the camp are practising professionals, not just supervisors, so there is real craft being taught. Children take home everything they make at the end of the week, which means there is a satisfying pile of finished work to show for it.
The venue itself is part of the experience. Visual Carlow is one of the best-regarded contemporary art spaces in the south-east of Ireland, a serious gallery that also happens to be a genuinely welcoming building. Children work in purpose-built studio spaces alongside the gallery floors, so they are surrounded by real contemporary art while they make their own. That context - being in an actual arts centre rather than a school hall - tends to rub off.
Carlow is well connected by road and rail. From Dublin, the M9 motorway runs south-west and the drive takes around an hour and a quarter. Irish Rail serves Carlow Station on the Dublin Heuston line, with several trains daily; the journey from Heuston takes roughly an hour. From Kilkenny it is a 30-minute drive on the N10. Visual Carlow sits on the Old Dublin Road on the northern approach to Carlow Town, and there is street parking directly outside the building. The town centre is a short walk away if you want to drop the children and spend the morning nearby.
Carlow Town has a compact centre with the remains of Carlow Castle beside the Barrow River and a handful of good independent cafes within easy walking distance of the gallery. There is more to see in Carlow and across Co. Carlow.
Heading to Visual Carlow in Carlow? Carlow has plenty more to see. Read the Carlow area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.