Information

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre is a dynamic multi-disciplinary arts facility presenting the best of local, national, and international work in the visual and performing arts.

Standing in a strategic location in the centre of Carlow Town in the grounds of Carlow College, it rivals its contemporaries in New York, Berlin or Tokyo in terms of its scale and contemporary architecture. VISUAL boasts an area of 3,130m², comprising four principle gallery spaces, a 320 seat performing arts theatre, a restaurant & bar.

The Theatre

Called after George Bernard Shaw, the renowned playwright, who had strong Carlow connections and who bequeathed several properties to Carlow town, the theatre receives national, international and regional touring productions as well as presenting locally produced work. Comprising one performance space designed to ensure optimum and dynamic presentation of theatre, music, dance, cinema and literary readings and associated workshop space, the theatre is the home venue for a number of Carlow based amateur and professional groups who can use it for workshops, rehearsals and presentation of their work. With 320 seats The George Bernard Shaw Theatre is the largest in this part of the country.

Gallery, Box Office & Reception Opening Hours

Tuesday to Saturday 11-5:30pm

Sunday 2-5pm

The Gallery is free to all to visit.

Last admissions are 15mins before closing, there is no photography, food or drink allowed.

Children must be supervised at all times.

For more information on the Box Office or to see the full programme of events you can view their website here.

Working with The Talbot Carlow

We are delighted to be partnering up with Visual on our new event packages. These packages will not only include dinner, bed and breakfast but tickets to some of the most highly anticipated cultural events in the Carlow calendar. Visual are delighted to offer us a select amount of tickets for certain shows coming up in their extremely popular programme of events.

Talbot Carlow is in an ideal location to be Visual's partner on this as we are within walking distance of the theatre, being located on the outskirts of the town and located just a 15 minute walk away. Alternatively it is just a 2 minute drive by car and would usually cost in or around €5 in a taxi.

Visual Arts Centre