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arts · Saturday 4 July 2026 · 10am - 5pm 
Cairde Visual - Open Submission Exhibition
At Sligo City Hall · Sligo City Hall, Sligo
At Sligo City Hall · Sligo City Hall, Sligo
Every July, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival opens up its visual arts strand to artists from across the region - and the result is one of the most democratic exhibitions on the Irish arts calendar. Cairde Visual is an open submission show, meaning any artist can put work forward for consideration, and the selection process is anonymous: pieces are judged without the judges knowing whose name is attached. What ends up on the walls is a genuine cross-section of contemporary visual art from the west of Ireland and beyond, not a curated stable of familiar names. If you like browsing art without feeling pressured to perform knowledge you do not have, this is a comfortable room to be in. All works on display have never been shown in Sligo before, so even regular festival-goers will find something new.
The exhibition runs for two weeks at Sligo City Hall, with the official opening on Saturday 4 July at 3pm - a free, public event and the natural starting point if you want to see the show at its liveliest. During the run, the gallery is open daily from 10am to 5pm.
Works are modest in scale by design: 2D pieces are capped at 55 cm x 55 cm including the frame, and 3D work must fit within an equivalent cube. That constraint keeps the show focused and avoids the kind of overwhelming large-format paintings that can crowd a civic space. It also tends to reward close looking - you are reading detail rather than absorbing impact from a distance. All works are for sale, so if something catches you, it is worth asking.
The exhibition sits inside the broader Cairde Sligo Arts Festival programme (4-11 July), which also brings theatre, music, circus, and literature events to venues around the town. Combining a visit to the Visual show with one or two other festival events makes for a full day out.
Sligo town is well connected by road and rail. The N4 links Dublin to Sligo in just under three hours; from Galway, the N17 runs north through Tuam and Charlestown in around two hours. Irish Rail runs regular services from Dublin Connolly, with the journey taking roughly two and a half to three hours depending on the service. Bus Eireann coaches also connect Sligo to Dublin, Galway, and other regional towns.
Sligo City Hall sits in the town centre. Street parking is available on the surrounding roads, and there are public car parks a short walk away. The town itself is compact enough to cover on foot once you arrive.
Sligo town has a strong arts infrastructure year-round - The Model contemporary arts centre is a short walk from the city centre, and the Hyde Bridge Gallery runs an active programme through the summer. W.B. Yeats grew up in the county and the landscape around the town carries that association lightly, with Benbulben rising north of town and Lough Gill to the east. There is more to see in Sligo and across Co. Sligo.
Heading to Sligo City Hall in Sligo? Sligo has plenty more to see. Read the Sligo area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.