Annual Alumni Lecture 2024
Thursday, 5 December 2024 | 6:30pm ((opens in a new window)in-person & online registration)'Stories from behind the closed doors of Crawford Art Gallery'Mary McCarthy, Director of the Crawford Art Gallery.Since graduating from UCD 30 years ago Mary has been fortunate to work in an exciting range of institution’s and contexts - from early days at Kerlin Gallery and IMMA, from National Sculpture Factory and European Capital of Culture to Dublin Docklands Development Authority and now serves as Director of one of Ireland’s National cultural institutions. The talk will touch on building and managing collections, capital development management and the wider cultural responsibilities, opportunities and challenges that go with being a Director. |
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| Annual Alumni Lecture 2023 Curator or Collaborator Ruairí Ó Cuív, Public Art Officer at Dublin City Council. Ruairí Ó Cuív is Public Art Officer with Dublin City Council since 2008. Previously he was an independent curator and arts consultant specialising in public art, exhibition curation, feasibility studies, evaluation and research. He was director of Temple Bar Gallery and Studios (1991-96), curator of exhibitions at the Douglas Hyde Gallery (1989-91) and Royal Hospital Kilmainham (1987-89). In 1982 he co-founded Ireland’s first professional art installation and transport company. He began his career as a History of Art lecturer and also as an archaeologist. |
| Annual Alumni Lecture 2022 Art and Life and everything in between James Hanley, RHA. James Hanley studied History of Art & English at University College Dublin (graduating in 1987) before going on to study Fine Art Painting at the National College of Art and Design. James is a successful figurative artist as well as one of Ireland’s foremost portraitists, painting many official and state portraits and is represented in significant public, corporate and private collections in Ireland and abroad. He was elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2000 and to Aosdána in 2008. |
| Annual Alumni Lecture 2021 Meeting Challenges in the Irish Art Market: A Commercial Gallerist’s View Tara Murphy, Owner/Director, Solomon Fine Art, Dublin. Tara Murphy attended University College Dublin, where she received an honours degree in Art History & French and a postgraduate Diploma in Arts Administration. Upon graduating in 1994, she began working at Suzanne Macdougald’s Solomon Gallery and was promoted to Gallery Director in 1997. In 2013 Macdougald decided to retire after 40 successful years in the business and Tara immediately took over the gallery on an independent basis. Tara has helped develop the Solomon into one of the most successful galleries in the country, representing over 40 contemporary painters and sculptors. |
| Annual Alumni Lecture 2020 Displaying Dior: exhibiting contemporary fashion within the Museum Oriole Cullen, Curator of Modern Textiles and Fashion, V&A Museum. Oriole Cullen is an alumna of UCD School of Art History & Cultural Policy (BA Art History & English, 1997) and the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA in the History of Dress). She is also a member of the inaugural group of UCD Creative Fellows. Her lecture considered the Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition curated by Oriole Cullen at the V&A, and looked at the history of exhibiting fashion within the Museum exploring the issues around the recent boom in ‘blockbuster’ fashion exhibitions. |
| Annual Alumni Lecture 2019 Cranach Digital Archive: Challenges and Perspectives for Collaborative Research in the Field of Art History Helen Smith Contini, Cranach Digital Archive Helen Smith-Contini gained her BA and MLitt in Art History at University College Dublin and then completed a postgraduate diploma in the conservation of easel paintings at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London (1995-1998). Her professional career took her to Germany where she initially worked for the Restaurierungszentrum der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf (1998-2003). As assistant paintings conservator she was responsible for the civic collection of paintings, ranging from c. 1500 to 1910. During this period she was also involved in various external projects in collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin and the first INCCA (International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art) project. She then completed a four-year conservation treatment of a large altarpiece by the Italian Renaissance artist Paris Bordon (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). This project, which was supported by the Getty Foundation (J. P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles) included a technical examination of the painting and the results were published in a catalogue and presented to the public in an exhibition. Since 2009 she has been working for the Cranach Digital Archive ((opens in a new window)www.lucascranach.org) an interdisciplinary collaborative research resource, providing access to art historical, technical and conservation information on paintings by Lucas Cranach (c.1472-1553), his sons and his workshop. |
| Annual Alumni Lecture 2018 Niagara Falls and Beyond: Values and Dynamic Tensions Dr Susan Storey Dr Susan Storey is an alumna of the School. Having undertaken her BA at UCD she continued her Art History studies as a postgraduate completing the MA before pursuing her doctoral research on the topic of Buffalo's Gilded Age: a story of architecture and landscape design. She was awarded her PhD in 2017. Her lecture addressed the cultural landscape of Niagara Falls which in nineteenth-century America became identified with tourism and technology, progress and industrial development. |