McGonagle appointed NCAD director

Professor Declan McGonagle has been appointed as Director of the National College of Art and Design.

He will take up the position in the autumn when Professor Colm O’Briain retires after six years.

NCAD board chairman Dr Joe Mulholland said the appointment came at a time when the art college is “determined to remain the premier art and designeducational institution in Ireland".

“It will continue to play a pivotal role in the cultural life of the country and build on its reputation at home and abroad as a centre of excellence,” Dr Mulholland said.

“I have every confidence that Declan McGonagle, with his administrative ability, his creativity and his broad experience of, and passion for, art and design education, will bring NCAD to new heights over the next decade. An Bord looks forward to working closely with him.”

Professor McGonagle is Director, Interface Research in Art, Technologies and Design at the School of Art and Design, University of Ulster. He worked and exhibited as an artist for a period after graduating from Belfast College of Art before being appointed the first Organiser of the Orchard Gallery in Derry in 1978.

He was short-listed for the Turner Prize and has also served on the Turner Prize and other national and international award juries and has been external examiner in a number of UK third level Institutions.

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