DIY Zine Studio at VISUAL Carlow

What to Expect

The DIY Zine Studio is a free, open-access making space set up inside VISUAL Carlow for the summer, where visitors can make their own artist’s zine, comic or artist book from the materials laid out on the tables. There is no class, no tutor and no start time: you walk in during opening hours, sit down, make something and leave. Children and adults use it equally, and it works well as a rainy-afternoon stop or a wind-down after walking the galleries.

The studio also holds a zine library, a browsable collection of small-press and artist-made publications that visitors are welcome to read through and add to. Finished zines can be left for the archive, so the collection grows over the run. Anyone stuck for a starting point can take a cue from the exhibitions showing in the building this summer, including Kate O’Shea’s Mycelium, Hold This and Our Place, all of which run to 30 August. The studio closes with them.

Good to Know

• Runs to Sunday 30 August 2026. Tuesday to Saturday 11:00am to 5:30pm, Sunday 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Closed Mondays.
• This listing is dated to Wednesday 12 August 2026, the next open day.
• Venue: VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Old Dublin Road, Carlow.
• Free, and no advance booking is needed. Drop in during opening hours.
• All materials are provided.
• No age restriction is set; younger children will need an adult with them.
• Supported by the Arts Council and Carlow County Council. Phone 059 917 2400 for queries.

Getting There

VISUAL is on the Old Dublin Road inside the grounds of Carlow College, about a ten-minute walk from Tullow Street and the town-centre car parks. There is free on-site parking for visitors. Carlow railway station on the Dublin Heuston to Waterford line is roughly fifteen minutes on foot, and Bus Eireann and JJ Kavanagh coaches from Dublin, Kilkenny and Waterford stop in the town centre. The gallery cafe and the free Colour Field installation behind the building make it easy to stretch a zine session into a longer visit.