One of the best, and certainly fastest ways of getting an exhibition is doing it yourself and organising your own.

Simply put, the 'curator' of a gallery is normally the individual who makes the decisions about which artists a space will show.

The key to successfully approaching galleries, or as is more often and accurately the case, gradually building a relationship with them, is having an insight and understanding into their priorities and how they operate.

Most galleries and independent curators have a definite style or interest in specific types of artwork they are interested in, and it is a good idea to research this carefully to save time and money and avoid cutting off avenues of future opportunity.

Curating isn’t what I anticipated would become a central tenet of my practice. I didn’t become a curator via institutional in-house training or graduate from a post-graduate curating course.

For the last six years artist Fiona MacDonald has worked as a curator 3 days a week, running a space, with all the practical, managerial, and fundraising implications that brings.

A residency can play a vital role for the arts practitioner, potentially providing some of the key elements that artists need to develop their work and careers.

In this article artist Dallas Seitz talks about his experiences practicing as a curator and the relationship between this role and his career as an artist.

The question of what makes an artist 'professional' is often debated. While professionalism in relation to arts practice is a lot to do with attitude and approach, there are certain basic resources you can develop to operate in a professional manner and help you develop your career.