Annual Alumni Lecture
Annual Alumni Lecture
Annual Alumni Lecture 2023
Thursday, 7 December 2023, 6:30pm
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 UCD (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.
Lecture abstract: This lecture considered the Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition curated by Oriole Cullen at the V&A, look at the history of exhibiting fashion within the Museum, and explore 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.
Lecture Abstract: The Cranach Digital Archive ((opens in a new window)www.lucascranach.org) is 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. At present the project is supported by more than 325 museums, research institutions, parishes and private collections worldwide. It is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of a larger initiative to develop new kinds of research tools to facilitate the exchange of art historical and conservation information between institutions and across international borders. This lecture will present our objectives, challenges, experiences and perspectives.
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.
Lecture Abstract: Niagara Falls provides the best example in nineteenth-century America of a remarkable juxtaposition of nature and technology: sometimes in tension, sometimes hand in hand. In nineteenth century America, the cultural landscape of Niagara Falls became identified with tourism and technology, progress and industrial development. The tension between the love of nature and its exploitation through progress and technology is the ideal lens through which to interpret the most prominent elements of the region’s cultural landscape. These tensions played out between business interests and industrial capitalists who fuelled rapid industrial exploitation of the falls and conservationists who sought to preserve the scenery for future generations. Niagara is equally important as the site of the development and transmission of long-distance electrical power, which transformed the built environment in nearby Buffalo. The story of the Niagara region over a period of almost four decades reveals diverse practices, buildings, and landscape manifesting in major social, ideological, and economic forces of the day. The Niagara region tells a story that is local, regionally expressive and culturally specific to nineteenth century America.