Category: Visual Arts

Royal Hibernian Academy re-launched

rha_22

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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‘Sculpture in the Parklands’ featured on RTE Nationwide

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In case you missed it this week, RTE’s Nationwide programme featured a great segment on ‘Sculpture in the Parklands‘, the Co. Offaly open-air sculpture park founded & managed by programme alumnus Kevin O’Dwyer. Click on the image above to watch the piece, and congrats to Kevin!

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…

Upcoming conference at IMMA: European Council of Artists

I’m happy to pass along this event announcement from Visual Artists Ireland:

Artists’ Mobility — aspiration or reality: ECA Conference at IMMA

The European Council of Artists (ECA) is holding its Annual Conference in Dublin from 7 to 8 November 2008.    The ECA is an umbrella body composed of interdisciplinary artists’ councils and artists’ organisations from 25 European countries.  One of its main events each year is its Annual Conference which brings together artists and their representatives, cultural operators, politician’s and MEP’s with particular interests in culture along with representatives from national and European institutions.  This year’s conference includes papers on the following topics: artistic freedom in a globalised world, the European Arrest Warrant, borders, visa issues & cultural diversity, and the role of the European Parliament in the promotion of artists’ mobility.

The following 6 highly regarded international speakers will present and discuss on the topic of artists’ mobility:

Eva Lichtenberger, MEP, Austria

Maria Badia i Cutchet, MEP, Spain

Lolita Jablonskiene, Chief curator National Gallery of Art, Lithuania, and ambassador of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

Pauline Hadaway, director of Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland

Ole Reitov, Freemuse – Freedom of Musical Expression, Denmark

Helena Drnovšek Zorko, Division of International Cultural Relations, Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A reception to launch the conference will be held in Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin city centre on Friday 7th of November at 6 pm. The conference sessions will take place on Saturday 8th at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, ending with a musical performance by Na Píobairí Uilleann.

Visual Artists Ireland is the ECA’s representative organisation in Ireland.  A conference programme and Booking Form are available to download from the VAI website (http://www.visualartists.ie/alr_status_artist.html). Booking is essential as places are limited.

For anyone requiring accommodation, a special conference rate has been arranged with the Hilton Hotel Kilmainham which is located beside the Irish Museum of Modern Art.  For further information please contact Alex Davis, Advocacy Officer:

T: 01 8722296
E: alex@visualartists.ie
W: www.visualartists.ie/alr_status_artist

European Council of Artists: www.eca.dk

Culture Night 2008: this Friday!

Just a reminder to all you vultures out there– the third annual Culture Night takes place this Friday, September 19th, from 5-11 pm. In Dublin more than 100 arts & cultural organisations will be staying open late, offering unique & fun programming for this evening only. Temple Bar Cultural Trust is the driving force behind the initiative, which includes special bus routes (map pdf) laid on to take vultures from spot to spot, and lots of outdoor performances and entertainment.

It’s not just Dublin getting all the action either:

Culture Night Cork: http://www.corkcity.ie/culturenight
Culture Night Limerick: http://www.limerickcity.ie
Culture Night Galway: http://www.galwaycity.ie

Last year’s event had a great buzz to it– wandering around the National Gallery at near 11 pm was a surreal highlight for me!– and it’s a great chance to check out (for free!) sites that normally require admission. I’ve got a few circled already… 🙂

Copies of the programme can be downloaded as a pdf here, or picked up in print copy from participating venues, the Suffolk St Dublin tourist office, or Temple Bar Cultural Information Centre at 12 East Essex Street (the latter two will be open 9am until 11pm on Culture Night).