Events
Seeing Ireland Project
The Irish Race Congress, a gathering of Irish political leaders and the Irish diaspora, took place in Paris in 1922. The Exposition d’Art Irlandais / Exhibition of Irish Art was a highlight in a series of diplomatic cultural events curated by the Congress organisers. The entire programme was sponsored by the nascent Irish State, as it sought to assert itself politically on the world stage, post-Independence.
‘Seeing Ireland’ is a digital recreation of the Exposition d’Art Irlandais, which was held in Paris in 1922. Comprising some of the leading names in Irish art and design, this recreation offers a view of Ireland in 1922 through a cultural rather than a military lens.
It goes live on Friday January 28th – 100 years after Exposition d’Art Irlandais opened in Paris and put the Irish State on display before the world.
Associated Events
Lecture
Dr Billy Shortall, ‘The Irish Race Congress, Paris, 1922 and its associated art exhibition’
2nd June 2022, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, Part of Global Ulysses Paris, 2022 series.
https://globalulysses.com/
Lecture
Dr Billy Shortall, 'Art and Cultural Diplomacy: The Irish in Paris, 1922'.
Sunday 22 May 2022, 1pm, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
https://www.hughlane.ie/lectures/forthcoming-lectures/3415-wil-short
Lecture
Dr Billy Shortall. Coffee Conversation: Studio and State (Public Events). Hugh Lane Gallery.
Wednesday 23 February, 11am “Pictures of modern Irish history”, John Lavery on show in Paris 1922.
https://www.hughlane.ie/lectures/lectures-past/3470-coffee-conversation-23-february-2022
Podcast series.
Congress for Ireland series launch in early March, 2022, Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris with TRIARC
Co-curated by Nora Hickey M’Sichili, Director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris and Dr. Billy Shortall, Ryan Gallagher Kennedy Fellow, TRIARC, TCD.
In a response to the Congress lectures of 1922 the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Ireland’s cultural flagship in Europe, have invited a number of Irish experts to speak on topics of concern today.
Speakers will include former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, Panti Bliss, Catriona Crowe, Richard Kearney, Amanda Coogan, Jennifer Goff, Paul Rouse, Emma Dabiri, Manchán Magan, Fintan O’Toole and Jennifer Walshe
The lectures, which will be podcast and as they become available, are accessible at https://www.centreculturelirlandais.com/en/agenda/2022-congress-for-ireland
Exhibition
Who Do We Say We Are? Irish Art 1922 | 2022, The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame
The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame in the US has organised an exhibition of Irish art to respond to the exhibition of art held in Paris in 1922 and featured on the www.seeingireland.ie website. Dr Billy Shortall was an advisor to the organisers as part of a recent visiting fellowship at Notre Dame University. Details of the upcoming exhibition are here, https://sniteartmuseum.nd.edu/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/ and there is an extensive catalogue and music CD to accompany the show.
Seeing Ireland Launch | Art, Culture, and Power in Paris, 1922
Friday, 28 January 2022, 5 – 6:30pm, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
An online webinar to celebrate the launch of the new online exhibition 'Seeing Ireland' which will explore one of the most important events in Irish art history: Exposition D’Art Irlandais, held at Galerie Barbazanges in Paris in Jan-February 1922.
Speakers; Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media,H .E. Vincent Guérend, French Ambassador to Ireland,
Mick O’Dea, PPRHA, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, ARHA, and, Billy Shortall, Angela Griffith and Ciaran O’Neill of TCD.
Online lecture
Dr Yvonne Scott, ‘Prospects in Perspective’
Kindly introduced by Provost Linda Doyle.
Fri, 25 Feb 2022, 19:00 – 20.00 GMT
Presented by The Irish Art Research Centre and supported by The Long Room Hub, TCD.
Dr Yvonne Scott, Fellow Emeritus, was a founding Director of the Irish Art Research Centre, TCD. She is one of the leading scholarly voices in national and international modern and contemporary art. She has published and curated projects on artists including Francis Bacon, Louis le Brocquy, Michael Craig-Martin, Paul Klee, Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland, Georgia O'Keeffe, Camille Souter, and Jack Yeats. She was a contributor and chair of the advisory board for the authoritative Art and Architecture of Ireland, Volume V published by Royal Irish Academy and Yale University Press (2014). A new RIA publication, co-edited with Catherine Marshall, of critical essays on aspects of Irish Modern and Contemporary art is forthcoming.
Symposium
Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Artist, Social Campaigner and City Councillor
Sat, 26 February 2022, 10:00 – 14:00, Long Room Hub, TCD
This symposium celebrates the recent publication of the book, Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Artist, Social Campaigner and City Councillor (Ed. Margarita Cappock). The book, which is the first comprehensive study of Sarah Cecilia Harrison, is comprised of four essays devoted to Harrison’s life and work as an artist, suffragist and a city councillor. This symposium will continue the themes examined in the book and highlight Harrison’s influential position in Dublin’s cultural and political circles in the first half of the twentieth century, which has, until recently, been largely overlooked.
The event will be launched by Dublin Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland.
Speakers: Hannah Baker, Margarita Cappock, Angela Griffith, Mary Muldowney, Senia Pašeta, Ciarán Wallace
Presented by Dublin City Council Libraries and Archives and Trinity Irish Art Research Centre, in association with Trinity Long Room Hub.
Outreach
Book and exhibition
Blot’s Most Marvellous Historical Guide to Printing Books, December 2021 – March, 2022
National Print Museum
The National Print Museum, Dublin, has recently published a children’s book published book titled Blot’s Most Marvellous Historical Guide to Printing Books.
Written by Dr Angela Griffith, TCD and illustrated by the award-winning illustrator Jennifer Farley the reader meets the affable George Thomas ‘Blot’ Dickson, an eighteenth-century printer’s apprentice, who brings them on a colourful journey, describing the evolution of bookmaking, its processes and its impacts.
The NPM is currently running an exhibition, of the same title, curated by Angela Griffith and designed by Jennifer Farley. For younger (and not so young) audiences, the project represents a creative and symbiotic partnership between writer, illustrator, printer and the museum space. Details of the book and exhibition are available at, https://www.nationalprintmuseum.ie/blots-most-marvellous-historical-guide-to-printing-books/