National Gallery Of Ireland Case Study

Great Essays
3.2.1 Curatorial practices
The National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) holds the national collection of European and Irish fine art. In addition to promoting the gallery and it’s collections through exhibitions, other major functions comprise conservation, preservation, provenance research, education and assistance with investigation of the collections. This study is being carried out in cooperation with art specialists at NGI, facilitating access to their essential expertise and knowledge of cultural heritage. In order to gain an understanding of domain expert practices with respect to curation of the collections several meetings were held with art specialists at the gallery. These art experts included a curator of the northern European collection, a curator of the archives and a librarian. Since the meetings served as a learning experience for this researcher and were exploratory in nature, no strict agenda was set. The domain experts responded to questions and offered advice and provided further information describing their methods and tasks. Findings from these meetings (Appendix A) provide essential knowledge informing this research. Curator of the collection: It is apparent that important tasks for the curator involve long term planning and research into works of art, with a) exhibition and b) research and publication of research in the arts, forming the major activities carried out. The curator informs that organising an exhibition can take a couple of years from inception through to actualization. An exhibition may be presented to celebrate a particular event, it may be organised around a particular theme, it may celebrate a group of artists or may be organized on some other basis that is of interest to the public. Galleries work in cooperation with each other. For example, the curator has identified an artwork that he wishes to include in the exhibition that he is currently planning but the artwork is not contained in the NGI collection. Acquiring this particular (unnamed) artwork involves liaison with another gallery in Germany, to organize a loan of the artwork for the duration of the exhibition. The curators preferred method of communication in this instance is direct communication rather than phone or email and he will travel to the gallery in Germany to discuss the possibility of the Loan and logistics of same. Discussing the curators recently published book “Gabriel Metsu: Life and Work. A Catalogue Raisonné” provided insight into how the art specialist approaches an artwork. It is clear that the curator considers that many aspects as well as and beyond the “image” are important for research in art, such as, the artist life; the artists oeuvre; the artwork in relation to the artist’s oeuvre; the social and cultural context in which an artwork is created; artwork attribution and provenance; artwork subject or theme, grouping
…show more content…
Complementing the collection of oil paintings is the Yeats Archive. The Yeats archive was donated to NGI in 1996 by Ann Yeats (the daughter of the poet William Butler Yeats who was the brother of the artist Jack B Yeats). Several additional collections have been acquired since then. Materials within the archive comprise watercolours; sketchbooks; illustrations; books and plays by the artist; the artist’s personal library and memorabilia associated with the Yeats family. The Yeats collection serves as an exemplar of the rich and complex nature of the domain; thus it forms the underlying dataset for this …show more content…
Similar to many other museums, NGI’s website provides information to the public such as details of exhibitions, visiting times, learning, research and the museum shop. It also provides public access to the museum collections. The front-end application to the archives is “Doras” which may be accessed from the website, while the backend archive system is iBase, a digital asset management system. The Yeats archive is not yet available online due to copy-write restrictions, but is available in Word document format. The front-end application to the library is “Portico” which may be accessed from the website. eMuseum is the front-end application to the museum collection, which may also be selected from the website. eMuseum is provided by Gallery System and publishes / retrieves works from the collection. The back end inventory control system is TMS (the Museum System): this software is also supplied by Gallery Systems. Other systems used by gallery personnel include auction house websites; subscriptions to these sites provide details of works for auction and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Significant personal events in one’s life can act to influence an individual’s artmaking practice. This is evident through Frida Kahlo’s artwork ‘The Broken Column’ 1944, Jenny Sages ‘After Jack’ 2012 and Christian Thompson ‘King Billy’ 2010. Frida Kahlo, is the first example of such an individual as she experienced a horrible accident causing permanent damage to her spine. As a result of the accident, Kahlo became influenced to paint through using her emotion as a driving force to paint where Kahlo states “I am broken, but I am happy as long as I can paint”. This is depicted in Kahlo’s artwork ‘The Broken Column’ in plate 4 which depicts a figure namely Kahlo herself being pricked by nails with the presence of a broken pillar.…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White Mercy Baltimore, Maryland---- On May 6, 2017, White Mercy---- a group exhibition curated by seven first-year MICA Graduate students from Curatorial Practice program opens on Space Camp Gallery, located at 16 West North Avenue, the opposite of the MICA Lazarus centure. The exhibition, on view until May 12, focuses on the minoriy people who suffer from white supremacy, and tries to discuss where the white supremacy is coming from originally and its serious influences on minorieties from various aspects, including politics, ecnomics, education, and prison systems. White Mercy refers to the fact that the whole system of the states, basically, is established by the white. It declares to build a safe world for everyone from varieties of…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Cabinet Of Natural History

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A defining feature of any collection, whether it be of curiosities, natural specimens, art works, or other objects, is the presence of an underlying system of thought — an episteme — that shapes the way in which a collection grows and evolves. Differences in these epistemes can vary widely across the centuries, and the present paper will discuss the differences between two genres of cabinets: the Wunderkammern, or “cabinet of wonders”, of the 16th century during the Renaissance; and the “cabinets of natural history” from the 17th and 18th century, as described by the great Enlightenment thinker Denis Diderot. Both of these cabinets aim to present a version of the world, a microcosm. However, the differences in object selection, organization,…

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    New Jemima Joe Overstreet created a piece titled New Jemima in 1964. This example of pop art was created in America during the Black Arts Movement. New Jemima is a free standing piece of plywood that is eight and a half feet long by five and a half feet wide by a foot and one fourth in depth. The plywood is covered with fabric that has acrylic paint on it of Aunt Jemima firing a machine gun at the word with pancakes falling down. There is also a glass syrup bottle similar to the looks of a grenade in the corner.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Art Museum Research Paper

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The State Art Museum of Florida, known as The Ringling , was once owned by one of the wealthiest men of the Roaring twenties, John Ringling. This museum is located in Sarasota, Florida and houses some of the most prominent works of art representing the culture and time of Europe back then and still continues to grow to this day. It opened it doors to the public in 1931, which was two years after the death of John’s wife Mable, hoping it would “promote education and art appreciation, especially among our young people.” John Ringling owned and operated a circus with four of his six brothers and it’s name was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. While he gained great success with the circus he developed a voracious passion for…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Art Museum as Ritual is an article written by Carol Duncan that questions the role and function of public museums. In this article, Duncan shows his dissatisfaction with the way museums use objects of art to come up with particular political meanings aimed at achieving a certain purpose. According to her, some nations came up with western style museums to be perceived as having desirable diplomatic or political allies. This essay summarizes the main ideas in the article by Carol Duncan, highlights my visit to a museum and analyzes two works of art stored in the museum.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although I am not certain of my specific career path, I hope setting aside time for graduate study will support me in solidifying my passions and finding my purpose. However, in essence I wish to support and facilitate the magic of museums. I am moved by the times I was struck with awe looking at a dinosaur replica as a child, excited by stone tools from ancient societies as a teenager, or inspired by an artist’s dynamic brushstrokes as an adult. I want to internalize these experiences and connections, using my work to recreate them for others. Allowing visitors to forge unique memories while inspiring wonder is my ultimate…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nerman Museum

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The exhibit contained many different pieces of artwork that were created by…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oklahoma Museum Analysis

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The images at the museum have a complete new form of communicating on socio-political issues that have taken before and relate them to our current world. Drawing and paintings make another form of imagery. We use art as a form of communication between humans, as a way to express our thoughts and reactions. The use of images of various shapes, shade to add meaning to something produce a lot of reasoning that humans have attributed in different situation based on pre-conceive knowledge about the subject…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Indian Museum

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the Merriam Webster dictionary, the literal definition of the word museum is “an institution devoted to the procurement, care, study, and display of objects of lasting interest or value; also : a place where objects are exhibited”. So what exactly do exhibitions represent and how do they do so? Exhibitions are put into museums that differ by age, target audiences, content, national and regional orientations and just simply by ambition. The type or genre of a museum might be the significant difference that divides through all of the other variables: art museums, cultural history museums, and natural history museums have different explanations for their motives and completely different conceptions of how to use and present having different…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Tampa Museum

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Many people may consider a museum collection as very important in determining the quality of the museum but modern day assessment…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Traditionally, museums are considered secular sites in which curators display art objectively; however, in her work, “The art museum as ritual,” Carol Duncan examines how museums act as powerful entities which influence the visitors’ perception through the display, organization, and architecture of the space. She elaborates that the museum’s authority actually enables them to represent and define entire communities, which consequently shapes the visitors’ perceptions of said communities. Perhaps Duncan’s claim is best summarized as: “To control a museum means precisely to control the representations of a community and its highest values and truths… What we see and do not see in … museums and on what terms and by whose authority we do or do…

    • 1804 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Forsyth Galleries

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Forsyth Galleries is home to paintings by each member of The Eight, a group of artists that gained national attention after a successful exhibition at Macbeth Galleries, New York in 1908. These artists, which included Arthur B. Davies, Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, William Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, and John Sloan, were a part of a movement that is now referred to as Americanism. Most of the artists painted in different styles, however their subject matter all revolved around that of a common world. They depicted a non-idealized urban life, the poor, immigrants, leisure, entertainment, and landscapes. Arthur B. Davies focused mainly on landscapes and his piece Rites of Spring, showcases a Symbolist approach…

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The publication “The Museum as Context” by Amy Tucker analyzes the environment of the museum and how culture and context is changed depending on the environment art is presented in. The purpose of art exhibitions is to show the audience an organized presentation of particular art pieces. The question raised in this chapter is whether the organization of the presentation is precise to represent each piece of work and does this representation distort the meaning of a piece. There are many ways art exhibitions are presented and displayed, from light to temperature. Exhibits can be considered a piece of art themselves due to the specific arrangements and methods of displaying items to connect the viewers with each piece of work.…

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Museum Of Coastal Carolina

    • 2370 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Each exhibit was interesting and designed to draw the visitor’s eye. Nothing was too overwhelming or clustered. I was quite impressed with the museum and thoroughly enjoyed my visit there. Since my visit to the museum was a pleasant one, I decided to reach out, through email, to the executive director.…

    • 2370 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays