New €15,000 RHA/RCSI award for contribution of art to healing

A new €15,000 award will celebrate the contribution that art makes to the healing process. The award is being funded and organised by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) with the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and The Irish Times.

The winning artist will receive €5,000 and the RCSI silver medal, and will also get a €10,000 commission for a new work which will go on display in the RCSI.

A shortlist will be selected from works on display at this year’s Annual Exhibition in the RHA. The shortlist will be announced at Varnishing Day (March 20th) in the exhibition, with an overall winner selected before the end of the exhibition. The 186th RHA Annual Exhibition opens to the public on March 22nd.

The RCSI Art Award has been set up to celebrate the common heritage of the RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) and the RHA, and the contribution that art makes to the healing process.

"The idea is for a work of art in any medium at the RHA annual show," says Clive Lee, who is professor of anatomy at the RCSI and the RHA. "We're trying to make it as broad as possible. Our punchline is that while medicine makes life possible, art makes it worthwhile so we're hoping to highlight that and inspire artists."

Both organisations are 32 county bodies and have educational roles. During the 1916 Rising, the RCSI was occupied, and the RHA's original home on Lower Abbey Street was destroyed during the Easter Rising. JM Kavanagh, the gallery's keeper, escaped with its charter and some records, but the entire Annual Exhibition was destroyed. In 1939 the gallery found a new, permanent home on Ely Place. The Foggy Dew, a show currently in the gallery by RHA president Mick O'Dea, features a painting of the building's demise.

The award committee includes RCSI president Declan J Magee, Mick O'Dea, Prof Clive Lee, Dr Abdul Bulbulia and Louise Loughran from the RCSI, and this writer.