Category: Announcements

Royal Hibernian Academy re-launched

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expanded upper gallery at the RHA

On Monday the smashing new Royal Hibernian Academy was unveiled in tandem with their Annual Exhibition, and I was excited to see the new building after months of anticipation. Over the past year the RHA has been undergoing a major expansion, and its redeveloped delights on offer include:

  • renovation of the entrance to incorporate a new reception area, and removal of the old staircase, adding a significant amount of space to the massive upper gallery
  • new staircase built in a double-height atrium, creating another exhibition space with a window wall providing excellent lighting
  • new cafe run by the Unicorn
  • new bookshop run by Noble & Beggarman (who also operate the Hugh Lane Gallery shop)
  • a 9000sq foot studio complex containing group & individual studios, a reference library, common room and administration offices
  • recladding of the exterior, new signage and lighting

According to an article by architectural critic Frank McDonald in the Irish Times last Friday, the project has cost 7.8 million euro, mainly raised from private donors, with 2 million still needed to balance the books. Hopefully the spectacular new spaces will prompt potential donors to dig deep– the RHA is an invaluable & unique resource for the visual arts in Ireland, and the determination of its board and its director Patrick Murphy are to be commended. For more photos from Monday’s reopening (thanks to husband Des!), click the link…

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New info & links added to ‘Research’

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Inspired by the Arts Council’s new publication indexing research on the arts & education, I’ve been busy updating the information located on the ‘Research‘ section of the blog…

Hopefully this will be of use to our students & others interested in further research on arts management and cultural policy, both in Ireland and internationally. I’ve provided (subjective) thumbnail sketches of the key resources available, and hope this will serve as a shortcut for getting stuck in to the wealth of research material out there 🙂 Any glaring omissions, please let me know!

Budget 2009 & the arts: the verdict

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As Deirdre Falvey reports in the Irish Times, the overall budget for arts and culture in Ireland is set to decrease from €204 million this year to €185 million. In particular the Arts Council’s budget sees a reduction from €85 million to €76 million. Culture Ireland’s budget will remain static at €4.7 million.

The reductions are far from unexpected… and indeed despite protestations from the sector it would have been deeply unwise not to reduce arts & cultural funding when every other public sector will be feeling the pinch. While it’s clear that cutbacks in arts funding will be necessary, it’s difficult to yet predict how priorities will be adjusted to meet these new financial realities. With the Arts Council still in flux, I doubt a clearer picture will emerge for some time.

In more surprising news:

The National Library of Ireland, the National Archives and the Manuscripts Commission are to be amalgamated, as are the National Gallery of Ireland, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Crawford Gallery.

The department indicated this would involve amalgamating the boards, directorate, governance, HR, infrastructure and management.

This follows the reduction across the board of the number of state agencies. How this will play out in reality is anyone’s guess; to my mind this is the most worrying development for the arts from Budget 2009.

*Update*: For a more extensive breakdown of budget figures & commentary, see Theatre Forum.

IMMA’s Mexican Modernist exhibition cancelled

Vendedoras de alcatraces by Diego Rivera

Vendedoras de alcatraces by Diego Rivera

I was terribly disappointed to learn that the big show of IMMA’s autumn season has been cancelled. From their press release:

The Irish Museum of Modern Art announced today (Tuesday 7 October) that, due to circumstances beyond its control, the exhibition Works from the Natasha and Jacques Gelman Collection of Modern Mexican Art, which was scheduled to open to the public on 26 November 2008, has been cancelled.

The cancellation of the exhibition, which was to have included works by such famous Mexican Modernists as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is the result of legal proceedings in Mexico involving the Vergel Foundation, which manages the Gelman Collection.

Commenting on the situation, IMMA Director Enrique Juncosa said: “Everyone at IMMA greatly regrets this recent turn of events. We are very conscious of the fact that a great many people were eagerly looking forward to seeing these magnificent works, and we have worked tirelessly over the past few weeks to try to ensure that the exhibition could go ahead. I should like to express our sincere thanks to the Mexican Ambassador, H E Cecilia Jaber, who has assisted us in every possible way in our dealing with the Mexican authorities. However, despite this, and the co-operation of the Vergel Foundation and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts) in Mexico, it has proved impossible to proceed with the exhibition.”

Disaster! This was going to be a major opportunity to see works rarely exhibited in Ireland, and we had been eagerly anticipating taking our students to see these works. How unfortunate for the museum and for the great number of visitors the show would have drawn…

Call for volunteers – Open House Dublin 2008

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I’m happy to pass along the following Call for Volunteers for Open House Dublin 2008… Last year’s swish website can give you a taste of the architectural delights in store… it’s a great event sponsored by the Irish Architecture Foundation for anyone who loves architecture or just likes a good nosy…

Open House Dublin 2008 needs you!

When?

17th – 19th October

Where?

Amazing places in Dublin you may not have ever seen before.

Why would I do this?

Gain valuable work experience for your CV, have fun while networking, explore your city, join one of the most exciting architecture festivals worldwide, skip the queues, meet lots of new people, and enjoy the wrap party!

How long will it take?

A minimum 4 hours of your time.

What do I need to know?

You don’t need to know loads about architecture; all you need is to be interested, over 18, and happy to get involved.

What will I be doing?

Taking care of one of the fantastic buildings on our programme -welcoming visitors, making sure people do not wander off into undesignated areas of the tour, and, if there are queues, making sure that only the allotted number of people are in the building at one time.

Make it more fun – get a friend to volunteer with you!

If you are interested or have any questions, email us at openhousevolunteers@gmail.com