Some things we missed: IACA shortlist / Minister for fun / doctorate for Campbell Sharp (Tuesday 3 July 2007)
compiled by Rachel Simmons
Shortlist for 2007 Irish American Arts awards announced
At a reception Wednesday 6 June, hosted by the The New England Chapter of Ireland Chamber of Commerce in American, Inc., the shortlist for the 2007 Irish American Arts awards, worth 22,289 euro ($30,000), was announced. The list is comprised of contemporary visual artists who live and work both in the United States and in Ireland, from New York City to Dublin and Derry City. According to their website, the awards "recognize, encourage and celebrate contemporary visual artists of Irish ancestry across the world," and are open to anyone of Irish ancestry, living anywhere in the world, who can prove the existence of one great-great-grandparent born in Ireland. The artists chosen submitted their works electronically over the internet and will now face judging in Manhattan for up to three physical artworks; the results of the judging will be announced at a ceremony in Manhattan in September. For the time being, images of their work are available at the IAAA website, at http://www.irishamericanartsawards.org/gallery_2007_short_list.php. The list is as follows:
Under 35 Years of Age:
Noel Brennan (Dublin)
Mark Garry (Dublin)
Lee Welch (Dublin)
35 Years of Age and Older:
Cecily Brennan (Dublin)
Conor McFeeley (Derry)
Corban Walker (New York)
Campbell Sharp receives honorary degree from NUI
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| Portrait of Noelle Campbell-Sharp, center, in the painting Noelle Campbell-Sharp and friends, by artist Catherine Kingcome, who spent time at the International Artists and Writer's Retreat founded by Campbell-Sharp, image held here. |
Last Friday, at a conferral cermony at NUI Maynooth, four honorary graduates received their Degrees - Doctors of Law honoris causa - including Noelle Campbell Sharp, director of Dublin's Origin Gallery and member of the Arts Council (among many other things).
Sharp was born in Dublin in 1943 and was adopted out to the Roche family of Wexford. She left school at 15, but won critical acclaim with the Young Dublin Players, which soon led to her position as Public Relations Official for the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. She later became the first female officer with the Dublin Junior Chamber, as well as winning a world award for Best Publication at a World Congress in Taiwan. The former owner and publisher of Irish Tatler Publications, Sharp moved from Dublin to Ballinskelligs in southwest Kerry after the loss of her shares during the Maxwell Communications collapse. There, she and several friends founded the Cill Rialig Project, an endeavor to restore a pre-famine village and create a new artistic community and retreat. The end result was the International Artists and Writers Retreat, which so far has welcomed 1600 artists out of 60,000 applicants to spend a few months free of charge at their retreat. She is also the owner and director of Origin Gallery in Dublin, a member of the Arts Council, and currently raising money to build a "Tate Gallery" in Waterville, which she hopes will host "large-scale exhibitions by artists of international renown."
Seamus Brennan takes over
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| New Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Seamus Brennan, pictured here at a recent charity cycle event, image held here. |
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has revealed his cabinet appointments at Leinster House, after receiving his seal of office from President Mary McAleese. He has moved former Arts, Sports, and Tourism minister John O'Donoghue to Ceann Comhairle, and has appointed Seamus Brennan as the new Minister of Arts, Sports, and Tourism.
There have been recent reports as to O'Donoghue's unhappiness with his new appointment, which he may see as a demotion, as he has been removed from the Cabinet. The bright side for him is that "he retains his full Ministerial salary of 214,344 euro, a State car and will be automatically re-elected as a TD at the next general election," though at the moment he might still be pre-occupied with the disappointment in his present appointment.
Brennan is replaced as Minister for Social and Family Affairs by Martin Cullen. Brennan, a senior Fianna Fáil politician, was positively giddy, according to some sources, about his new position as 'Minister for fun'.
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