Declan McGonagle is a well-known figure in Irish

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

, holding positions as director at the Orchard Gallery in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, the first director at the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

, and as director of the

National College of Art and Design The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of th ...

, Dublin. He writes, lectures and publishes regularly on art and museum/gallery policy issues, and curates exhibitions.

Early life

McGonagle was born in

in 1953. He studied Fine Art at the College of Art and Design in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. In the 70's and 80's he worked as a painter and a lecturer of Art and Design at the

Regional Technical College An Institute of Technology (IT) is a type of higher education college found in Ireland. There are a total of fourteen colleges that use the title of Institute of Technology, which were created from the late 1960s and were formerly known as Region ...

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( ga, Leitir Ceanainn , meaning 'hillside of the O'Cannons'), nicknamed 'the Cathedral Town', is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, a county in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. Letterkenny lies on the R ...

, County Donegal.

Career

Orchard Gallery

Derry City Council Derry City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Dhoire; Ulster-Scots: ''Derry Cittie Cooncil'') was the local government authority for the city of Derry in Northern Ireland. It merged with Strabane District Council in April 2015 under local govern ...

was responsible for setting up the Orchard Gallery on Orchard Street in the city of Derry, McGonagle was appointed to the post of curator in 1978 and remained there until 1984 during the height of

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

. He gave up painting a year after he joined the Orchard. Orchard Gallery established itself on a minimal budget, and McGonagle found that international artists were attracted by the concept of addressing the issues of communities in conflict. In 1983, he worked briefly for the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

in London, while keeping close contact and transferring exhibitions to the Orchard. He returned to Orchard in 1986 to continue running the gallery for another four years. In 1987 he became the first ever arts administrator to be shortlisted for the

Turner prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

for his work at the Derry gallery.

Irish Museum of Modern Art

In 1990, McGonagle was appointed director of the newly established

(Imma) in Dublin. He supported the contentious decision to use the 17th century Kilmainham Hospital location, as opposed to a new purpose-built premises in the then redeveloping

Dublin Docklands Dublin Docklands ( ga, Ceantar Dugaí Átha Cliath) is an area of the city of Dublin, Ireland, on both sides of the River Liffey, roughly from Talbot Memorial Bridge eastwards to the 3Arena. It mainly falls within the city's D01 and D02 ...

area.

Aidan Dunne Aidan Dunne is a visual arts critic and contributor to ''The Irish Times.'' Education Dunne is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Career Aidan Dunne has written regularly for ''The Irish Times'' for decades. He w ...

of the

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

notes that at Imma "over the years... the lack of a large exhibition space has on occasion been a drawback." Hugh Linehan, arts and culture editor at ''The Irish Times'', commented in 2021 that McGonagle "...fatefully insisted it should be located in the Royal Hospital", and that "Imma has struggled to define itself against the backdrop of a beautiful but not very well-suited exhibition space." McGonagle developed a strategy for working with contemporary artists to collect "for the future", he proposed to give educational and community-related programmes equal importance to the curatorial work. The inaugural exhibition included works of

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Mondrian, Gris,

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

, Giacometti and Miró. In relation to Imma's collection, McGonagle is quoted as saying "most of what we buy is Irish," in 1993, "but I'm not operating a quota system. Part of that has to do with the practical dimension of how often you see international work. £100,000 is actually quite a modest sum, although it's a lot in Irish terms, so it's only right that we redistribute that wealth back into the system .." In 1994 the gallery acquired a semi-permanent

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...

work for £20,000. During his ten-year appointment as director at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, McGonagle saw the conversion of the property's stables into accommodation and studio spaces, the (then) part-derelict Deputy Master's House restored as a specialist exhibition space, and the 48 acres of the grounds dotted with contemporary sculptures. In 1996, Irish abstract artist Gerald Davis wrote an article in ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', criticising McGonagle's vision for Imma and calling for more historical and contemporary Irish artists to be represented at the gallery. He noted that "the Irish Museum of Modern iclargely ignores the contribution made by our own artists of the last 50 years and does not regularly make a cross-section of their work accessible to the public. The current policy of promoting that which is internationally fashionable is, in essence, provincial." The gallery's highest footfall to date was recorded in 1997 at 350,000, as a result of the popular

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

exhibition. In 1999, Imma administered the first Nissan Millenium Art Project award of £40,000 for a temporary artwork. The award was granted to

Dorothy Cross Dorothy Cross (born 1956) is an Irish artist. Working with differing media, including sculpture, photography, video and installation, she represented Ireland at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Central to her work as a whole are themes of sexual and cu ...

for her 'Ghost Ship' project.

CityArts

City Arts Centre, a community arts organisation founded in 1973, did not receiving Arts Council funding in 2001. McGonagle was then hired as director and under his leadership the Centre began a process of cessation, starting with the closure of the Centre for 2 years with all staff made redundant and all activities stopped. City Councilor

Mannix Flynn Mannix Flynn (born Gerard Mannix Flynn, 4 May 1957) is an Irish independent politician who has served as a Dublin City Councillor since May 2009. McGonagle launched a 'Civil Arts Inquiry' (a two year series of "conferences and recorded public debates") meanwhile earning €50,000 per year. The 'Inquiry' had skeptics, dismissing it for not engaging with the art community and as a profit-driven waste of time, without producing any results. Under McGonagle the Centre's building and property on Moss St in central Dublin was sold in 2003 for more than €4.2 million, making it the richest arts organisation in Ireland at the time. After the sale, the City Arts Centre spent the next few years in a basement office and in 2007 bought a smaller building on Bachelor's Walk. However, it needed repairs and only reopened in 2010 (as CityArts). At this time the organisation had spent nearly all of its savings between operational costs, archiving, the 'Civil Arts Inquiry', redundancy packages, and the new building with its renovations. In 2012 CityArts voluntarily liquidated, with the new building becoming the property of the

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Dublin in Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the council wa ...

. As of 2019 the old Moss St. building has remained unused and undeveloped.

NCAD

In 2008 McGonagle took up the post as Director of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (

NCAD The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of th ...

). Under his governance, NCAD began an academic alliance in 2010 with UCD, and in 2012, McGonagle announced that the college was in talks regarding a possible merger with

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

. McGonagle assured staff and students that a campus move to Belfield was not on the agenda. McGonagle resigned from

in 2015 amidst controversy.

Other projects

Aside from his 1983 stint at

, in 1993 McGonagle sat on a subcommittee of the Cultural Relations Committee (CRC) to reinstate the Irish Pavilion at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. The exhibition in 1993 saw

and

Willie Doherty Willie Doherty (born 1959) is an artist from Northern Ireland, who has mainly worked in photography and video. He has twice been a Turner Prize nominee. Life and work Doherty was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and from 1978 to 1981 studied a ...

represent Ireland. It was the first time Ireland had participated in the event since 1962. Also that year, McGonagle was a member of the Turner Prize jury. From 2004 to 2008, McGonagle was the first director of a new research centre in the School of Art and Design at the

Ulster University sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

Controversy

Imma

In February 2000 the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands,

Síle de Valera Síle, Gaelic-Irish female given name. Bearers of the name * Síle Ní Mathgamna, died 1473. * Síle Ní Siurtáin, died 1485. * Síle Níc Ceallaigh, died 1486. * Síle Níc Carthaigh, died 1489. * Síle Ní Raghalligh, died 1491. * Síle ...

, appointed Marie Donnelly, a leading socialite and charity fundraiser, to Chair a new board at Imma. Shortly thereafter "she advised the then director, Declan McGonagle, that she was advertising his post." But because "after his first five years in the position, his contract had been renewed without the post being publicly advertised" McGonagle took legal action. In November 2000 Board members were informed that lawyers for McGonagle were applying to the High Court for an injunction restraining Imma from publicly advertising the director's position. The issue took on larger proportions as "...public perception was that onnellywas somehow against community arts and in favour of international blockbuster exhibitions, that she was a wealthy socialite out to bring down a man of the people." During this time there was public support for McGonagle and a high profile threats were made to withdraw collections and funding from the gallery should the director lose his position. The businessman and art collector

Gordon Lambert Charles Gordon Lambert (9 April 1919 – 27 January 2005) was an Irish businessman, senator, and art collector who, in 1992, donated over 300 paintings to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He had earlier campaigned for an Irish national modern art c ...

claimed he intended to reassess his relationship with Imma . However, "after four months he won a renewal of his contract, but he then resigned" abruptly, but with considerable compensation. He was able to negotiate a severance package with government mediator Paddy Teehan and was allegedly awarded €250,000 in the settlement. Other reports say he was "awarded five years’ salary (€370,000) five years’ pension contributions (€31,000), five years’ housing subsidy (€90,000) and a car."

NCAD

McGonagle resigned from

in 2015, a year in which "questions about accounting practices, a drastic increase in student numbers, the introduction of student charges, and questionable revenue management" emerged. In 2015, after numerous delays in producing its accounts over the course of 8 years, NCAD's state funding was put in question during a Committee of Public Accounts (a standing committee of the Irish parliament). Early in 2015 "The Comptroller & Auditor General

Seamus McCarthy Seamus McCarthy has been Ireland's Comptroller and Auditor General since 28 May 2012. He is the constitutional officer responsible for public audit in Ireland and heads the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. His constitutional status ...

told the Public Accounts Committee that accounting practices in NCAD were "not fit for purpose"", and Labour TD

Robert Dowds Robert Dowds (born 11 May 1953) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Mid-West constituency from 2011 to 2016. He was a member of South Dublin County Council for the Clondalkin electoral ...

said it was "one of the most scandalous situations with which the committee has been presented". There were related student protests and a sit-in in March 2015, followed by a near unanimous

SIPTU SIPTU (; ''Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union''; ga, An Ceardchumann Seirbhísí, Tionsclaíoch, Gairmiúil agus Teicniúil) is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Rep ...

vote at an Emergency General Meeting on April 15, 2015 of 'no confidence' in the senior management:

"At an Emergency General Meeting of SIPTU members in NCAD, held on April 15, a motion was passed that stated: “Following the recent appearance of NCAD before the Public Accounts Committee and in support of the action of students, SIPTU members have expressed no confidence in the Senior Management Team of NCAD to plan for the long term fiscal and academic future of the college. We will as requested by our members bring this to the attention of the Department of Education and the HEA.”"

On 11 September 2015 McGonagle announced his intention to retire as director of the National College of Art and Design at the end of the year citing "personal reasons".

Bibliography

• McGonagle, Declan. ''A shout in the street : collective histories of Northern Irish art''. Belfast: Golden Thread Gallery, 2008. • Wyndham, Andrew H. ''Re-imagining Ireland''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. • Seawright, Paul. ''Paul Seawright''. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2000. • McGonagle, Declan, Fintan Toole, and Kim Levin. ''Irish art now : from the poetic to the political''. London New York: Merrell Holberton Independent Curators International, in association with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 1999. • Warhol, Andy. ''After the party : Andy Warhol works, 1956-1986''. Dublin London: Irish Museum of Modern Art Lund Humphries distributor, 1997. • ''From beyond the Pale : art and artists at the edge of consensus''. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 1994. • ''Inheritance and transformation''. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 1991. • Levine, Les. ''Blame God : billboard projects''. London: ICA in association with the Artangel Trust and the Orchard Gallery Derry, 1985.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGonagle, Declan 1953 births Living people Irish curators People from Derry (city)