Post on 12-Jan-2017
Irish Arts Review
PrefaceAuthor(s): Alistair SmithSource: Irish Arts Review Yearbook, (1991/1992), p. 7Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20492666 .
Accessed: 10/06/2014 14:04
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PREFACE
During the period of production of this volume of the Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Dublin has been
enjoying its year as Cultural Capital of Europe. Famous through the years as a crucible of culture, Ireland
is making official celebration of the fact.
Perhaps the most significant event of the year has been the inauguration of the new Irish Museum
of Modern Art in the judiciously revitalised Royal Hospital Kilmainham, which is greeting its first
visitors as the Irish Arts Review goes to press. In his address at the opening ceremony, the Taoiseach made
reference to the place of the visual arts in Ireland, with its practitioners living forever in the shadow of
the great writers. The new museum is seen as a prerequisite in the process of redressing the balance
and in promoting contemporary visual culture in Ireland. We are privileged here to publish the
'manifesto' of IMMA's first Director. Declan McGonagle's ambitions for the museum are outstanding in
their flexibility and in direct contrast to the over-doctrinaire pronouncements which are endemic in
modern art circles. He wishes the practice of the museum to be created by the demands made on it by its
artists and its public. Instead of enforcing on the museum the limitations of a particular doctrine, he
thus opens it to wider opportunities.
While not suggesting that the Irish Arts Review would aspire to have the influence of the museum,
as a (museum without walls' the Review hopes to emulate its flexibility of purpose. Not to be restricted
by the confines of any doctrine, whether traditionalist or modernist, we undertake to publish on both
ancient and modern art, both religious and secular, on architecture and the crafts, and on art administra
tion and politics. It is our policy to bring to our readers the best studies on Irish art and art events
taking place in Ireland, and to publish also the work of Irish scholars who may have extended their
interest to the visual arts of other countries. Thereby we seek to reflect and document the enthralling
diversity of the artistic spirit of Ireland and the Irish.
With this ambition and with the avowed intention of maintaining a high standard of colour
reproduction and design, we are constantly aware of being exposed to fluctuations in economic temp
erature, and wish therefore to record our grateful thanks for grants given by the Arts Council of Ireland
and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. To GPA we owe a debt of gratitude for major financial
support. With no statutory requirement to support the arts, GPA not only makes the Review's quality of
production possible, but supports the arts over a wide range; witness the Emerging Artists Scheme, the
International Piano Competition and the more recently instituted GPA Book Award. While, in some
countries, provision for the arts is shrinking, in Ireland both public and private funding appears to be
expanding. This can only be helpful to artists and public alike and is welcomed by all, who like us,
rejoice that 'art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments
as they pass, and simply for these moments' sake.'
ALISTAIR SMITH EDI TOR
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