Re-Imagining Ireland

Irish Art Today

Alanna O'Kelly, Sanctuary/Wastelands,
1993 DVD Projection Courtesy Irish Museum
of Modern Art

Organized in cooperation with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), this show will present cutting-edge, artistically and politically challenging works drawn primarily from the Museum's collection in Dublin. The IMMA exhibition will be presented at the University of Virginia Art Museum from April 12 through June 8, 2003. The show will feature such internationally known artists as Dorothy Cross, Shane Cullen, Willie Doherty, Alice Maher, Mark Francis, Paul Seawright, and Kathy

Alice Maher, Berry Dress
1994 Mixed media
(16 x 26 x 30cm.)
Courtesy Irish Museum
of Modern Art

Prendergast - artists who span the distance between the political and personal, often addressing the human consequences and adjustments in outlook that have, in the last ten years, accompanied Ireland's extraordinarily rapid economic growth and related social change. The artists in the Re-Imagining Ireland exhibition, men and women, from North and South, city and countryside, look back to reframe traditions, or forward to address the future. The Forum for Contemporary Thought will sponsor a special panel focused on the exhibition, featuring Dublin City Arts Center Director Declan McGonagle and IMMA Director of Collections Catherine Marshall as part of the conference, May 9.

Willie Doherty, Incident

"Willie Doherty, Incident, 1993
Cibachrome on aluminium (123 x 184 cm.)
Courtesy Irish Museum of Modern Art

Leabhar Mòr Na Gaeilge - The Great Book of Gaelic North American Preview

Traditional 9-10th Century Gaelic Poem
Art, Alan Davie; Translation Fearghas Mac Fhionnlaigh;
Calligraphy, Louise Donaldson /
Courtesy Pròiseact nan Ealan, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Four years in the making, The Great Book of Gaelic - or Leabhar Mòr na Gaeilge - is an extraordinary collaborative project that has been dubbed a twenty-first century Book of Kells. Combining the work of 100 contemporary Scottish and Irish artists, poets, calligraphers and typographers, the project brings together 15 centuries of Scottish and Irish culture, celebrating mythologies, traditions and a language that bind them together. One hundred artists were asked to respond to 100 poems chosen and written by the top Gaelic poets of today. The result is a powerful testament to the enduring creativity of Gaelic culture in Scotland and Ireland. Edited by conference participants Theo Dorgan and Malcolm Maclean, the exhibit, which is the basis for a printed book, is currently on display at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, Scotland. Twenty of 100 (25" x 42") pages/panels will be presented at the University of Virginia during the Re-Imagining Ireland event. Sponsored by Pròiseact nan Ealan. Exhibit display courtesy of Gropen . Additional support provided by the British Councils of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and USA.

The Northern Fiddler - Irish Traditional Fiddle Playing in Donegal and Tyrone 1977-79

Presented by the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, and originally made possible by a grant from the Arts council of Northern Ireland, this 20-panel exhibition with soundtrack is based on an ethnographic study and book, The Northern Fiddler, by Allen Feldman and Eamonn O'Doherty. The sound and images of the display, Feldman has written, capture "a unique historical turn in the performance of Irish instrumental music," portraying "a performance culture that was nurtured, from the middle of [the 20th century] onward, as an intensely private space of intimate craft and in reaction to the attrition of public communal performance spaces." Presented at the main conference center.

Breaking the Silence / Voices and Choices

Presented by the Irish Centre for Migration Studies, this display will focus on the Centre's work in recording the stories of those who, on the one hand, have chosen to stay at home in an emigrant society and those, on the other, who have opted to join the ranks of the Irish worldwide. The display will include a computer link to the audio archives at the Centre, which is dedicated to promoting the study of historical and contemporary migration within a comparative international framework, using new information and communication technologies. Presented at the main conference center.