Drawsoc – UCD’s Visual Arts Society – during Fresher’s Week

The autumn is speeding by like a freight train – hard to believe we’re already in Week 5, here in bella Belfield. A few bits and pieces on this sunny Wednesday:

• Jobs have been recently refreshed, in case you’re looking!
• Very proud of the lovely folks over at UCD Drawsoc (our visual art student society) who signed up 400+ new members during Fresher’s Week, and also made this fab video showcasing their activities and those of the other student societies here at UCD. They are doing great work to promote arts practice & creative expression here on campus, and to be a welcoming community for all new students! They are amazing.
• UCD Art History is turning 50! To mark the founding of our programme (the first degree in art history on the island), we’re having a day of celebrations and a reunion, on the 28th of November, culminating with a keynote by Dr Brian Kennedy, director of the Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio). Registrations are now being taken for what’s going to be an epic day!
• The deadline for responses to the proposed National Cultural Policy 2025 has been extended to 31 October; there is also a series of regional consultations by the Department of Arts, Heritage & the Galetacht ongoing throughout October around the country – check the schedule if you’re interested in attending.
• Places are filling fast for the event ‘The Creative Museum: Extending Participation Through Collaboration’ — a wonderful two days in Belfast, highly subsidised for students, that will explore how creative arts practice is being integrated by museums. A wonderful chance also to sample the delights of the Belfast Festival and Belfast Open Studios! I’ll be bringing a group of around 20 from UCD — come join us and all the others from both north & south who will be attending.
• Along with a great list of speakers, I’ll be participating in the conference Designing Commemoration: Performance, Participation and Process, this Thursday/Friday, organised by Dr Kathryn Milligan and Dr Niamh NicGhabann.
• My colleague Dr Emilie Pine who coordinates the Memory Studies Network here at UCD has launched a new website – a great portal for anyone interested in research on this subject (including lots of podcasts, including one from me!)
• Many of us who work in the visual arts bid farewell yesterday to Jason Oakley, the Publications Manager for many years at Visual Artists Ireland (and tireless arts champion and enthusiast), who died a few days ago. He was my editor for a number of years, and a friend — and I hope he would have been chuffed by all the love expressed for him over the last week, and how much he will be missed.