Despite, as he says, his Scottish surname, Dan Cameron admits to "blurry" but strong Irish ancestry.

Senior Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, where he has been based since 1979, he has curated a string of important international exhibitions, including the Istanbul Biennial in 2003 and many shows in Spain. He is particularly fond of Spain: "It's an ongoing relationship. Of course, there are other places where I would love to curate - Germany, for example. They've never invited me, but then there's always someone who hasn't asked you to dance . . ."

Like many curators who take on EV+A, he had limited exposure to Irish art. "What's nice about EV+A is that it has this good reputation among curators - though not necessarily among artists." That is, curators find it a warm, worthwhile experience, but in the international context artists don't automatically feel it's something they should be applying themselves to.

What were his first impressions of Limerick? "As a New Yorker I find it extremely appealing. I can identify with it, that proximity to the sea, it has an interesting urban feel, by which I mean it's not suburban, there's a kind of posturing toughness that is a very urban thing." Faced with a mass of unfamiliar work, "You open yourself up to things, you let yourself be deeply subjective. I've been curating for decades now, and I know enough about criteria not to have to think about them. That said, in selecting a show like this you're entering a greyer area. The quality of the work doesn't have to be the only thing you focus on. I mean I know that some work in the show falls into the categories of folk art or amateur art, but I don't have a problem with that. I know that even when something about a piece interests you, that interest can quickly fade over the course of an installation, but that's okay too."

The bottom line, for Cameron, is to come up with "a good looking show. I'm intent on breaking down taboos about contemporary art. I feel there's something in the Limerick temperament that engages with art that's provocative, rude, silly or even aggressive. They're able to take it on, they're amused by it."