{"id":28537,"date":"2023-09-26T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=28537"},"modified":"2023-09-29T11:11:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T15:11:05","slug":"taoiseachs-visit-to-irish%e2%80%88arts-center-included-tour-of-silent-testimony-a-moving-series-of-portraits-by-celebrated-irish-painter-colin-davidson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=28537","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach\u2019s Visit To Irish\u2008Arts Center Included Tour Of Silent Testimony, A Moving Series Of Portraits By Celebrated Irish Painter Colin Davidson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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(Left to right) Irish Arts Center Vice Chair Pauline Turley; Irish Arts Center Board member and Capital Project Steering Committee Chair Gerrard Boyle; Irish Arts Center Executive Director Aidan Connolly; and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (Nir Arieli)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Irish Arts Center (IAC), renowned for presenting dynamic, inspiring, collaborative experiences of the evolving arts and culture of Ireland and Irish America in an environment of warm Irish hospitality, last week welcomed Ireland\u2019s Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, for a tour of the institution as it nears the end of its second full year of programming in its state-of-the-art new 11th Avenue building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While on site, Varadkar toured a building-wide double exhibition of paintings by Colin Davidson, and announced $2.1 million in additional funding toward the transformation of IAC\u2019s intimate previous venue, around the corner at 553 West 51st Street, which will ultimately adjoin the 11th Avenue building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish Arts Center\u2019s new building, opened in December 2021, is the culmination of a more than a decade-long transformation of the organization into one of New York\u2019s most beloved multidisciplinary cultural institutions.
It signifies a new era in the cultural life of the global Irish diaspora, and provides an important new canvas for the development and presentation of the performing arts in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building\u2019s centerpiece is a flexible performance space for theater, dance, music, visual arts, interdisciplinary work, residencies, and special events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building also includes a new studio for classes, rehearsals, and community gatherings; an intimate, warmly appointed library classroom and patron lounge; and an atrium bordered by the building\u2019s interior historic brick fa\u00e7ade.
Designed by New York-based architects Davis Brody Bond (National September 11 Museum, The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center), with consultation and support from Ireland\u2019s Office of Public Works, the new building is an historic collaboration between the people of Ireland and New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Irish government contributed $9.4 million of the $60 million capital budget for the 11th Avenue new building, which included $37 million from the City of New York and the remainder provided by the State of New York and private donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with Irish Arts Center Board member and capital campaign co-chair Loretta Brennan Glucksman (Nir Arieli)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Placing what he described as \u201ca beautiful building\u201d in the context of the Irish government\u2019s Global Ireland strategy, the Taoiseach remarked, \u201cWhen our diaspora lives abroad, often they and their children and grandchildren stay connected to Ireland through culture and the arts. Equally importantly, for people who have no Irish heritage or connection to Ireland, it\u2019s often the way they discover Ireland for the first time and fall in love with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor that reason, we said we would support the new Irish Arts Center. Congratulations on doing such a wonderful job here, and I hope the Center goes from strength to strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two exhibitions of Colin Davidson paintings are on view throughout the new building. Silent Testimony, an exhibition of large-scale portrait paintings, reveals the stories of eighteen people who are connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles, the turbulent 30-year period in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curated by Kim Mawhinney, Senior Curator of Art at National Museums Northern Ireland, the exhibition fills IAC\u2019s theater with the multitude of stories intimated in Davidson\u2019s stirring portraiture (September 16\u2013October 8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside Silent Testimony, newer works from Davidson will be on view in Selected Paintings and Drawings, also curated by Mawhinney, September 16\u2013December 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 4, IAC will unveil a newly commissioned Davidson creation to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: a portrait of Senator George Mitchell, the special envoy to Northern Ireland who co-chaired the talks leading to the historic peace agreement. <\/p>\n

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