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Aosdána Members
Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the Taoiseach. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200. Its steering body is a committee of 10, called the Toscaireacht. Formation Aosdána was originally set up by the Arts Council, on the suggestion of writer Anthony Cronin, with support from the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, well known for his support for the Arts, although Fintan O'Toole has argued that this also served to deflect criticism of Haughey's political actions. The first 89 members were chosen by the Arts Council. Membership The process of induction relies entirely on members proposing new members, with a system of selective voting used to filter app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arts Council (Ireland)
The Arts Council (sometimes called the Arts Council of Ireland; legally ) is the independent "Irish government agency for developing the arts". About It was established in 1951 by the government of Ireland, to encourage interest in Irish art (including visual art, music, performance, and literature) and to channel funding from the state to Irish artists and arts organisations. This includes encouragement of traditional Irish arts, support for contemporary Irish arts, and finance for international arts events in Ireland. The council was modelled on the Arts Council of Great Britain, founded in 1946, and works closely with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, formed by the British government in Northern Ireland in 1962 to fulfil a similar role. The Arts Council is an agency of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport. It is the main distributor of funding to artists and arts organisations in Ireland and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (; born 1942) is an Irish poet and academic. She was the Ireland Professor of Poetry (2016–19). Biography Ní Chuilleanáin was born in Cork in 1942, the daughter of Eilís Dillon and Professor Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin. She was educated at University College Cork and the University of Oxford. She lived in Dublin with her late husband Macdara Woods; they have one son, Niall Woods. She is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and an emeritus professor of the School of English which she joined in 1966. Her broad academic interests (notably her specialism in Renaissance literature and her interest in translation) are reflected in her poetry. She retired from full-time teaching in 2011 and a selection of her poems are currently on the syllabus for the Leaving Certificate, the final state examination for secondary school students. Ní Chuilleanáin is a member of Aosdána. She is a founder of the literary magazine '' Cyphers,'' alongside Pearse Hutchinso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Murphy (playwright)
Jimmy Murphy is an Ireland, Irish playwright living in Dublin. He is a former writer in residence at NUI Maynooth (2000–01), a member of the Abbey Theatre’s Honorary Advisory Council, a recipient of three Bursaries in literature from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíona and was elected a member of Aosdána in 2004 and was elected to its governing body An Toscaireacht, in 2025. Murphy was born to Irish parents in Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, Lancashire on 30 September 1962. When he was six, his family returned to Dublin, settling in the South inner-city district of Islandbridge. He first went to school in nearby Inchicore, attending the Oblate Fathers’ primary school there, then moved to Ballyfermot, a working-class heartland of suburban Dublin, in his teens. There, he attended secondary school at St. John's De La Salle College. After failing the Irish Intermediate Certificate he left school to pursue an apprenticeship in painting and decorating, taking his Juni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evelyn Conlon
Evelyn Conlon (born 1952) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Over the course of her career, Conlon has published dozens of novels, short stories, and essays. Her 2003 novel, ''Skin of Dreams'', was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year. Conlon is a member of Aosdána and has been appointed a writer-in-residence at educational institutions around the world, including the University College Dublin, the University of Minnesota, and Mishkanot Sha’anamin, Jerusalem. She is an adjunct professor in the creative writing MFA program at Carlow University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A member of Irishwomen United, Conlon was a founding member of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in 1979. Biography Conlon was born in Rockcorry, County Monaghan, where she spent her childhood. She was educated at St. Patrick's College in Maynooth and briefly attended University College Dublin. At the age of 19, Conlon went to Australia by ship in 1972 and worked at various jobs around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Scott (choreographer)
John Scott Dance, formerly the Irish Modern Dance Theatre, is a Dublin based modern dance company. It was founded by John Scott in 1991 with the aim of creating, commissioning and expanding dance experience in Ireland. Background The Irish Modern Dance Theatre (IMDT) was founded in 1991 by Dublin-born choreographer John Scott. In 1992 the company launched its first production, a piece called ''Beneath the Storm''. Many IMDT works have premiered in Dublin's Project Arts Centre, including ''Next to Skin''. ''Next to Skin'' was described as an attempt to take dancers of different backgrounds and languages including Arabic, Persian, French, German and Kabaye, and produce a "stream of consciousness, describing what the other dancers are doing,". Throughout the 90s IMDT had a number of shows that featured in the Dublin Theatre Festival such as ''Dance for Another Place'' in 1994, followed by ''Ruby Red'' in 1995, and ''You Must Tell the Bees'' in 1997. In the 2000s IMDT's continue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecily Brennan
Cecily Brennan (born 1955) is an Irish artist who began as a painter but later also produced sculptures. In the 1990s, on behalf of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, she chaired the Visual Arts Committee. Her video "Black Tears" (2010), depicting an Irish actress in grief was highlighted in Cork and Dublin galleries. Biography Born in 1955 in Athenry in western Ireland, Cecily Brennan studied at the National College of Art and Design, graduating in 1978. Initially working as a painter, her works have been exhibited in the 1980s and 1990s in solo exhibitions at the Project Arts Centre and the Taylor Galleries in Dublin, at Cork's Crawford Art Gallery The Crawford Art Gallery () is a public Art museum, art gallery and museum in the city of Cork (city), Cork, Ireland. Known informally as the Crawford, it was designated a 'National Cultural Institution' in 2006. It is "dedicated to the visual ar ..., and at the Limerick City Gallery. She has also participated in group ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camille Souter
Camille Souter (born Betty Pamela Holmes; 22 October 1929 – 3 March 2023) was a British-born Irish abstract and landscape artist. She lived and worked on Achill Island and was a Saoi of Aosdána. Early life Souter was born Betty Pamela Holmes in Northampton, England, on 22 October 1929, but she was raised in Ireland. Souter received a general education at Glengara Park School in Dun Laoghaire. She originally trained as a nurse at Guy's Hospital in London. Souter began painting, after attending art classes as part of occupational therapy whilst she recovered from tuberculosis on the Isle of Wight. Although largely self-taught, Souter took up sculpture in 1950 as her convalescence continued in Dublin. She was trained there by Yann Renard-Goulet. Souter returned to London and completed her nursing studies in 1952, before abandoning the profession in favour of painting. In 1953 she began to explore the medium of paint after visiting Italy. Early patrons of her work included ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edna O'Brien
Josephine Edna O'Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024) was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. O'Brien's works often revolve around the inner feelings of women and their problems relating to men and society as a whole. Her first novel, '' The Country Girls'' (1960), has been credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland after the Second World War. The book was banned and denounced from the pulpit. Many of her novels were translated into French. Her memoir, '' Country Girl'', was published in 2012, and her last novel, '' Girl'', was published in 2019. Many of her novels were based in Ireland, especially in County Clare, but ''Girl'' was a fictional account of a victim of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping in Nigeria. In 2015, she was elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists and honoured with the title Saoi. She was the recipient of many other awards and honours, winning the Irish PEN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Le Brocquy
__NOTOC__ Louis le Brocquy '' HRHA'' (; 10 November 1916 – 25 April 2012) was an Irish painter born in Dublin to Albert and Sybil le Brocquy. Louis' sister is the sculptor Melanie Le Brocquy. His work received many accolades in a career that spanned some seventy years of creative practice. In 1956, he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, winning the ''Premio Acquisito Internationale'' (a once-off award when the event was acquired by the Nestle Corporation) with '' A Family'' (National Gallery of Ireland), subsequently included in the historic exhibition ''Fifty Years of Modern Art'' Brussels, World Fair 1958. The same year he married the Irish painter Anne Madden and left London to work in the French Midi. Education Le Brocquy was educated at St Gerard's School, studied chemistry at Kevin Street Technical School in 1934, and then Trinity College Dublin. Work Le Brocquy is widely acclaimed for his evocative "Portrait Heads" of literary figures and fellow arti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Scott (artist)
Patrick Scott (24 January 1921 – 14 February 2014) was an Irish artist. Patrick Scott was born in Kilbrittain, County Cork, in 1921, and had his first exhibition in 1944, but trained as an architect and did not become a full-time artist until 1960. He worked for fifteen years for the Irish architect Michael Scott, assisting, for example, in the design of Busáras, the central bus station in Dublin. He was also responsible for the black and orange livery of Irish intercity trains. Scott was perhaps best known for his ''gold paintings'', abstracts incorporating geometrical forms in gold leaf against a pale tempura background. He also produced tapestries and carpets. His paintings are in several important collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He won the Guggenheim Award in 1960, represented Ireland in the 1960 Venice Biennale, the Douglas Hyde Gallery held a major retrospective of his work in 1981 and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin held a major sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Murphy (playwright)
Tom Murphy (23 February 1935 – 15 May 2018) was an Irish dramatist who worked closely with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and with Druid Theatre, Galway. He was born in County Galway, Ireland and later lived in Dublin. Murphy's first successful play, ''A Whistle in the Dark'', was performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London in 1961 and caused considerable controversy both there and in Dublin when it was later given its Irish premiere at the Abbey having initially been rejected by its artistic director. Life Murphy was born in Tuam, County Galway, the youngest of ten children. His elder siblings gradually emigrated to Birmingham until he was left alone with his mother. He played at centre half back for the Galway Vocational Schools Gaelic football team in the early 1950s. He attended Archbishop McHale College in Tuam, was an apprentice at the Tuam Sugar Factory and later became a metalwork teacher at Archbishop McHale College. He began writing in the late 1950s: "I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Friel
Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription required). He has been likened to an "Irish Anton Chekhov, Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams. Recognised for early works such as ''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' and ''Faith Healer'', Friel had 24 plays published in a career of more than a half-century. He was elected to the honorary position of Saoi of Aosdána. His plays were commonly produced on Broadway in New York City throughout this time, as well as in Ireland and the UK. In 1980 Friel co-founded Field Day Theatre Company and his play ''Translations (play), Translations'' was the company's first production. With ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
