Embracing Vision: Curators, Artist, Poet & Authors Talk

Join the curatorial team, invited contemporary artist and poet/community activist & art historian for a rich & varied informal gallery talk.

Embracing Vision: Celebrating 100 Years of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland

Saturday 7th September 2pm – 3pm

Join the ATR Curatorial Group for a curator and artists’ talk, with exhibiting artist Francis Matthews and poet and community activist, Sarah Clancy, and art historian and author of Landscape and Environment in Contemporary Irish Art – Dr Yvonne Scott

Embracing Vision marks the centenary of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI). This exhibition showcases works gifted to the Drogheda Municipal Art Collection by the FNCI since the Collection’s inception in 1946.

The exhibition is organised by a curatorial research group in Highlanes Gallery, comprised of teachers from secondary and initial teacher education settings. In this, the fourth exhibition organised within this project, the group have selected from the works of the FNCI from the Collection, as well as other art works including a selection of filmed poems commissioned by Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann in partnership with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, IMMA , ANU, Landmark and MoLI, and works by contemporary visual artists.

The Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI) are a charitable foundation, formed a century ago, in 1924, by the painter Sarah Purser and a group of like-minded philanthropist friends. The group understood the need to support the development of the national collection through the acquisition of important art and objects. The FNCI’s objective was to ensure the representation of both modern European painting and contemporary Irish artists in public institutions through the donation of work to galleries and museums throughout Ireland and furthermore supporting the education and enjoyment of the public.

Alongside the FNCI works, this exhibition features contemporary artists Selma Makela, Francis Matthews, and Anna O’Leary and the filmed poetry readings of the work of Sarah Clancy, Sasha Terfous, and Molly Twomey, commissioned by Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann in partnership with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, IMMA , ANU, Landmark and MoLI.

Exhibiting Artists & Poets – René Brault, Sarah Clancy, Jerome Connor, Sylvia Cooke-Collis, Beatrice Glenavy, Jack Hanlon, Evie Hone, Mainie Jellet, Dany Lartigue, William Leech, Selma Makela, Francis Matthews, Ferenc Martyn, William Mulready, Andrew O’Connor, Anna O’Leary, Bea Orpen, Mervyn Peake, Nano Reid, Sasha Terfous, Molly Twomey.

Artist – Teacher – Researcher Curatorial Team – Eileen Brennan, Kieran Gallagher, Bairbre Geraghty, Veronica Lavin, Ciarán Power, Roisin O’Sullivan.

Embracing Vision: Celebrating 100 Years of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland continues until Saturday 7th September