ACNI hands over OBG / new IMMA board members / AIB winner / new Culture Ireland head (Tuesday 17 April 2007)
Ormeau Baths gets new Chair, set loose
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) yesterday announced the handing over of the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, to a new board of management. The Chair of that board "of Northern Ireland’s premier contemporary art gallery" - press release - "is Professor Kerstin Mey, Director of Art and Design Research Institute at the University of Ulster." OBG had been under iterim management by ACNI since the dramatic closure of the 'old' OBG last year (more here).
It is obviously much too soon to discern the new direction of OBG. However, there are indications that it will be more locally focused, and less concerned to 'compete at an international level', than the previous version of OBG.
Mey comes bearing an impressive CV. According to the press release:
Kerstin Mey undertook an MA in Art and German Language and Literature at Humboldt University of Berlin and received a PhD in Art Theory/Aesthetics from this institution.
She obtained a PG Dip in European Cultural Policy and Administration from the University of Warwick.
Before taking up the position of Chair in Fine Art and Research Area Leader in Interface: Research in Art, Technologies and Design, University of Ulster, and heading up the Research Institute Art and Design, she worked in academic institutions in Germany and Britain.
Her research focuses on the contexts of contemporary cultural practices and is concerned with art in contested spaces and the relationship between art and its documentation.
She has written on 20th Century and current art, aesthetics, cultural policy and literature. She is series editor of transcript: books on contemporary visual culture, including (ed.) Sculpsit: Contemporary Artists on Sculpture and Beyond (MUP, 2001) and (ed. with Simon Yuill), Crosswired - Communication, Interface, Locality (MUP, 2004). She has also edited Art in the Making.Aesthetics, History and Practice (Peter Lang, 2004). Her book Art and Obscenity was published by I B Tauris in 2006.
Her curatorial activities include Duel: Tracy Mackenna and Karla Sachse, Henry Moore Institute 1996; Bodies of Substance: Margaret Hunter, Azade Koker, Ping Qiu, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, February/March 2002 and Galerie M, Berlin, April 2003.
IMMA comings and goings
Earlier this month, Conor Bowman and Anne O’Donoghue were appointed by the Republic's Minster for Arts, Sport and Tourism to the Board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Rosemary Ashe, Kevin Kelly, Chris Flynn and Emer O’Kelly were re-appointed for another five-year terms, while Pauline Flynn and Jackie Gallagher departed the board.
Copperwhite takes AIB award
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| Cover of Circa 109, featuring Diana Copperwhite: Retro Girl (detail), 2003, oil on linen, 40 x 40 cm; photo Anthony Hobbs; courtesy the artist |
Diana Copperwhite has won this year's prestigious AIB Prize. She was nominated by the West Cork Arts Centre (WCAC). Copperwhite gets 20,000 euro, to go towards creating an exhibition at WCAC and towards a catalogue.
New CEO for Culture Ireland
Culture Ireland, increasingly important in the promotion abroad of arts from Ireland, has chosen a new chief executive. He is Eugene Downes, a consultant on international arts and cultural relations. According to the press release:
Since 2000 Eugene Downes has run a consultancy advising Irish Government bodies on international arts strategy and managing cultural events abroad. He has programmed and produced showcase concerts in twenty countries across Europe, Asia and South America for State Visits and Trade Missions by the President and Taoiseach. Previously Eugene worked as an Irish diplomat, including a spell as Cultural Attaché in Russia, and as a music and opera broadcaster on RTÉ Lyric fm. He has served on the Boards of leading arts organisations in Ireland and abroad.
Most recent news items:
• Odysseus searching for Europe / the statues that cannot see (Thursday 5 April 2007)
• Aosdána: new members and Saoi / home improvements anyone? / National Memorial commission awarded (Friday 30 March 2007)
• Life's a bench (Monday, 26 March 2007)
• Dubliner for Tate Modern / Arts Council is hiring (Monday 26 March 2007)
For a full list of news items, click here.
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you have an opinion on this article? If so, please click here for our comments form.
| Responses so far |
| Comment 1 |
Another government appointee who will know nothing about the
real world... a key appointment by the Government for
Culture in Ireland... and we get a government lackey
|
| Comment 2 |
League of Gentlemen: Extraordinary really, that the new
direction of the OBG may well focus more on 'the local'.
Its previous director was never immune to this, simply that
he was always conscious of also putting 'the local' in an
international context. He also strengthened an awareness of
the best in contemporary art practice in Northern Ireland.
Best case scenario- that the OBG continues to do this.
Worst case- '...we're local people, we don't want any of
that kind of trouble here!'
|
| Comment 3 |
Comment 2 zzzzzzzzzzz
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