National Gallery of Ireland launches new website

2 December 2010

Hot off the presses… at long last, behold the new NGI website! Seems to be a few glitches however… I couldn’t use the online collections search feature, and the calendar function isn’t the best design. Ditto for the ‘Top Reasons to visit’ and ‘About Us’ pages which have weird formatting in Firefox. Also once you go into the shop the primary navigation disappears. Most unhappily there is a severe lack of any interactive content (although they’ve signalled the development of a YouTube channel)… pity. Although it’s a vast improvement on the old site, this isn’t a particularly ambitious replacement. Bummer.

Weekly round-up: 1 December 2010

1 December 2010

Snow, snow everywhere! Thaw out and enjoy:

Dublin’s been shortlisted to host the World Music Expo in 2013 (any detectable irony with respect to the possible cancellation of the Festival of World Cultures?)
Trinity has unveiled its new Long Room Hub – in a word: jealous.
Judith Woodward is stepping down as director of the National Concert Hall – she will be greatly missed.
A new report on Arts Attendance in Ireland has just been published & makes for fascinating reading.
Speaking of new research, Arts Council England has published a report on the Internet and ‘digital arts audiences’ – should be required reading for Irish arts orgs (and the Irish Arts Council, and the Dept of TC&S– digital/internet strategies and development support in this country have a long way to go!)
The Dublin Contemporary project‘s been picking up steam – although support for the event has so far been couched in the language of cultural tourism, I can’t help feeling the timing will do this initiative few favours.
Richard Conway in The Guardian recently sang the praises of new pop-up arts spaces in Dublin– great responses in the comments (unfortunately now closed)– ryan333 however has a point!!
I was interested to read about this campaign about charitable legacies in the IT, launched by Legacy Promotion Ireland – back in my IU fundraising days bequests were a standard part of the curriculum & training, and it surprised me initially they were so rare in Ireland. Until there are significant changes in the tax structure however I don’t see them becoming a widespread practice.

Weekly round-up: 17 November 2010

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Lots of gloomy news this week– but some bright spots for the arts:

Opera Ireland went out on a high note (excuse the pun!) with its production of Tosca– also the first opening night of opera to be streamed live online in Ireland.
Our own college council meeting has been postponed pending budget announcements; devastating budget cuts for UK colleges of the arts (and the Open University) makes for glum reading.
Further on the subject of UK arts cuts– the Guardian’s helpfully collating articles that deal with the impact and extent of cuts to the arts– from the slash and burn of Somerset’s county council that eliminated 100% of arts funding, to the better news of Scotland’s relatively light cuts to its arts budget.
The Department of Tourism, Sport and Culture announced the recipients of its cultural technology grants. Lots and lots of iPhone applications funded, with the largest grant (€180,000) to the Foynes Flying Boat Museum to develop a 3-D hologram ‘tracing the history and development of Irish coffee for flying boat passengers at Foynes’: seriously?!
The Irish Museums Association is sponsoring a one-day seminar at University of Ulster (‘Practice Meets Theory‘) for students and professionals interested in museum studies. Attendance is free!
Bucking the trend of the unpaid internship– the Jerwood Charitable Foundation in the UK is offering a series of creative bursaries in association with selected arts and cultural organisations – the selection of opportunities is quite juicy!

Wednesday round-up (27 Oct 10)

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Ok, so technically it’s Thursday, but the baby’s gotta eat sometime.

Here’s what’s caught my eye this week:

Locally, Professor Michael Shanks from Stanford University’s visiting UCD– as the blurb goes: ‘His lab at Stanford, Metamedia, is pioneering the use of Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate collaborative multidisciplinary research networks in design history, media materialities and long-term historical trends.’ He’s giving three seminars, the last two of which on 18 November (Museum Design and the Humanities / Design and the Humanities) may be of interest to readers here? Click here to download more info.
As Sue Sylvester opined in last night’s Glee, ‘art’s gotta push boundaries’: see some folks doing just that at a gathering of top Irish performance artists on November 4 at Kilmainham Gaol.
Did you know next week is Design Week? No? Get thee to the website…
The RHA is hosting a swanky evening fundraising do next Friday.
Dnote’s launched a Cultural Map of Dublin (iPhone app to follow, huzzah!)
Do you dream in 140 characters? Business to Arts is looking for a social media intern to join their team.
And finally: can Beckett Bran be far behind? Americans for the Arts cook up a new ad campaign:

Animated RSA lectures – brilliant!

21 October 2010

Was just sent a link to the fab animated interpretation of a recent lecture at the Royal Society of Arts – here Sir Ken Robinson delivers a lecture on changing education paradigms (wonderfully drawn by Andrew Park). And this is just one of a series! Amazing stuff: