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 .

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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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