Frances Ruane HRHA
A New Yorker by birth, she moved to Ireland in 1973 after completing
an MFA in Painting and a PhD from the Pennsylvania State University.
She was the first Education Officer in the National Gallery of Ireland
(1974-77) and from 1977 to 2005 lectured in History of Art & Design at
NCAD. She has been Art Advisor to AIB since 1980 where she has played a key role in building their outstanding collection of Irish Art. She has written and lectured widely on contemporary Irish art, has curated major exhibitions and has presented several television programmes. She was on the boards of the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Business-2-Arts and the Crawford Gallery and was Chairman of the Crafts Council from 1999-2003. In addition to her art consultancy practice, she continues to lecture and write, most recently contributing to the upcoming book on the artist Brian Bourke HRHA.
 
 
Anthony Cronin HRHA
Anthony Cronin was born in Enniscorthy Co Wexford. He has lived much abroad but has been settled in Dublin for some time and is married to the writer Anne Haverty.

He is the author of twelve books of poetry, which include the well-known longer poems RMS Titanic and The End Of The Modern World. His most recent collection, published this year, is The Fall. He has also written a number of admired prose-works, among them No Laughing Matter, a biography of Flann O'Brien, and The Last Modernist, a life of Samuel Beckett. Dead As Doornails, a memoir of some of his friends of earlier decades in Dublin and London, has
been re-printed and re-issued many times since its publication in the 1970s. The first of his two novels, The Life Of Riley, will be re-issued later this year. He has published several collections of essays, many concerned with the subject of art and society. He wrote a weekly column in The Irish Times for some years and now contributes regularly to The Sunday
Independent. He was Cultural and Artistic Adviser to Charles Haughey, being instrumental in the creation of Aosdána and the Irish Museum of Modern Art as well as other projects.
 
 
 Garry Hynes HRHA
Born in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon in 1953, Garry moved to Galway with her family in 1965. In 1971 she started an Arts Degree (History & English) in University College Galway (now NUIG) and joined the college drama society. Fresh out of college in 1975, Druid was founded by Garry, Marie Mullen and Mick Lally who came together to present a summer season of theatre. The creativity and determination
demonstrated by Garry and her colleagues in those formative years led to a series of major arts projects, which breathed fresh life into Galway city. In 1979 it was Druid’s move into the Quay Street area of Galway that started the development of the left bank area of what is now the most visited part of the city.

Garry Hynes and Druid have been on a remarkable journey since the company was founded in 1975. Druid has toured the length and breadth of Ireland and has toured extensively overseas making it one of the premier theatre companies in the English-speaking world. Throughout her career, Garry has received numerous awards, notably when in 1998 she made history on Broadway by becoming the first woman to win a Best Director Tony Award (the theatre industry’s equivalent of the Oscars) and in 2005 when she was the recipient of the Freedom of Galway City, the highest honour a city can bestow upon one of its
citizens.

Outside of her work with Druid, Garry has worked with The Abbey and Gate Theatres (Ireland) and internationally with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court in the UK, and with Second Stage, Signature Theater and Manhattan Theater Club
in New York; and with The Kennedy Centre in Washington.
 
 
 Frank McGuinness HRHA
Born in Buncrana, Co. Donegal, in 1953. His plays include The Factory Girls (1982), Baglady/Ladybag (1985), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (1985), which won the Evening Standard
Award for most promising playwright, Innocence (1986), Carthaginians (1988), Mary and Lizzie (1989), The Bread Man (1990), Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (1992), The Bird Sanctuary (1994), Mutabilitie
(1997), Dolly West's Kitchen (1999), Gates of Gold (2002) and The Stone Jug (2003). Speaking Like Magpies premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2005. He has also written award-winning plays for television. His first
collection of poetry, Booterstown, was published in 1995, and was followed by The Sea With No Ships (1999). He has adapted plays by Lorca, Ibsen, Chekov, Piradello, Sophocles, Euripides and Brecht. He has taught at various Irish colleges and universities, and is currently lecturing in English at University College Dublin. He lives in Co. Dublin.
 
 
 Michael Longley HRHA
Michael Longley was born in Belfast in 1939, and educated at The Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College, Dublin, where he read Classics. He has published eight collections of poetry including
Gorse Fires (1991), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award, and The Weather in Japan (2000), which won the Hawthornden Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Irish Times Poetry Prize. His most recent collection
Snow Water (2004) won the Librex Montale Prize (Milan). His Collected Poems was published in 2006. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of Aosdana. He was the winner of the American Ireland Fund Literary Award in 1996. In 2001 he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and in 2003 the Wilfred Owen Award. He is the present Ireland Professor of Poetry. He and his wife, the critic Edna Longley, live and work in Belfast.


Tony O’Malley Studio Residency

The RHA is delighted to offer the Tony O’Malley Studio Residency. During his lifetime Tony O’Malley was the recipient of subsided studios and accommodation in St. Ives, Cornwall. Administered by the Arts Council of Great Britain it offered the artist time to concentrate on
creating work. Jane O’Malley has never forgotten the privilege of those decades for herself and Tony. A number of years ago she acquired Tony’s family home in Callan Co. Kilkenny. Jane, working with her architect, set about renovating the building into a first class facility for an artist to live and work in. And in association with the Royal Hibernian Academy she
now wishes to offer this home/studio to an artist on an annual basis.

The house and adjoining studio are situated in Callan town, Co Kilkenny. The converted shop and house is decorated to the highest standards and boasts a modern bright kitchen and separate living room with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. A small inner
courtyard links the front and back of the house and beyond the home’s living area is the studio. The studio has a double height ceiling with plenty of natural light. Double doors lead onto a large landscaped private garden area. The studio has a mezzanine level also which could be used as an office area if required. The house and studio are fully furnished to the highest standards and offer a superior living and work place for any artist.

The artist awarded the residency will have the exclusive use of the house and studio for 12 months, from January to December 2011, at a nominal cost of €250 per month. The artist would be responsible for their own utility costs. This full-time residency is for an artist who works primarily in the medium of paint. The studio is not suitable for sculptors.

To apply for the residency, artists are asked to submit the following:
- A current CV.
- A cover letter detailing the proposed usage of the studio and a work plan outlining ideas for the residency.
- Up to 12 images of work, preferably presented in a printed format.

Applications should be sent to the Academy Coordinator by July 30th.
Short listed applicants will be called for interview in mid-September.
Requests for further information should be directed to the Academy Co-ordinator, Ciara.


RHA Drawing Marathon Week

The drawing marathons have been hugely popular with all places fully booked. Please feel free to contact Ciara, ciara@rhagallery.ie if you would like to be added to our Drawing Marathon email list and be among the first to hear of the next marathon scheduled..


The Arthur Gibney Medal for Architectural Drawing

The Arthur Gibney Medal is an award, which was created at the wishes and on foot of a bequest to the RHA by Arthur Gibney’s widow Phyllis Gibney.

Arthur was a past President of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, an active member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and its President for many years. He prioritised the skill of manual drawing and was one of the most distinguished draughtsmen of his architectural generation. This award is in his memory.

The RHA has invited applications for this award from 4th year architectural students across the nation’s architecture schools. The award recipient shall receive the solid silver Arthur Gibney Medal, awarded at the RHA Annual Exhibition prize giving ceremony on May 23rd. The Council of Academy shall select the award recipient and the winning work shall be exhibited at the RHA’s Annual Exhibition in May..