The newly formed Arts Council will be chaired by the former Director of the Rape Crisis Centre in Dublin, Ms Olive Braiden, it was announced this morning.
The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, announced the composition of the new council, which has been reduced from 17 to 13 members and meets for the first time next month, at a function in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
Broadcaster and journalist Ms Emer O'Kelly is one of only two outgoing Council members to be reappointed. The director of the Gaiety School of Acting, Mr Patrick Sutton, has also been reappointed for a two-and-a-half year term.
Writer Mr John McGahern, actress Ms Rosaleen Linehan, poet and broadcaster Mr Theo Dorgan and businesswoman and publisher Ms Noelle Campbell-Sharp are among the new members.
In announcing the new appointments, Mr O'Donoghue said the new membership reflected "the imagination, energy and dynamism of the arts sector and the spirit of the new legislation.
The Arts Council is the independent state body charged with the promotion and development of the arts in Ireland. Established in 1951, it supports all aspects of the arts, in Irish and in English — architecture, dance, drama, film, literature, music, circus, opera, and visual arts.
It also supports activities and facilities such as arts centres, festivals and community arts and provides annual and multi-annual grants or project funding to hundreds of arts organisations throughout Ireland.
The first meeting of the new Council, which is made up of six men and seven women, will be in early September.
The 13 member Arts Council announced today is:
- Olive Braiden — Chairperson
- Noelle Campbell Sharpe - Director of Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat and OriginGallery
- Willie Doherty — Artist
- Theo Dorgan - Poet and Broadcaster
- Jerome Hynes - (Deputy Chairperson) Chief Executive of Wexford FestivalOpera
- Philip King - Filmmaker and musician
- Rosaleen Linehan — Actress
- Orlaith McBride — Director of the National Association of Youth Drama
- John McGahern - Writer
- Una Ó Murchú - Artistic Director of Brú Ború, Cashel.
- Mary Nunan - Choreographer, Dancer and Lecturer
- Emer O'Kelly - Theatre Critic, The Sunday Independent
- Patrick Sutton - Director of the Gaiety School of Acting.
