Noreen O'Hare was a rare person in the arts world - an inspiring curator and also a practising artist. In a tribute to her, proceeds of an auction of work donated by over 80 artists will support cancer research. Aidan Dunne reports.
A tribute, an exhibition at the Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise, celebrates the life and work of Noreen O'Hare, who died early last year. Aged only 44 when she died, O'Hare had been, latterly, the arts officer for Offaly Co Council, and had lived with cancer for some time. That is why the proceeds of the auction, which will feature work by more than 80 Irish and international artists, will go to the St James's Hospital Foundation to support cancer research.
Originally O'Hare trained as an artist, and had a degree in fine arts and an MA in sculpture from Belfast College of Art. As it happened, however, while she made her own work in several media, she went on to have a thriving career in arts administration, as a curator at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast and at Derry's Orchard Gallery. Sadly, her tenure as the first director of Belfast's Ormeau Baths Gallery, an opportunity she relished, was forestalled by the onset of illness.
Extremely energetic, enthusiastic, generous and committed, she was widely liked and respected in the arts community. The fact that she was a practising artist herself gave her a particular sympathy with the artist's point of view, something that proved invaluable in her curatorial roles. In a written tribute published in Circa magazine last year, Colin Darke noted her willingness to take chances on artists early on in their careers, in contrast to the habitual curatorial practice of looking for a safe bet.
While working as arts officer in Offaly, a post she took up during 1999, O'Hare was invited onto the board of the fledgling Dunamaise Arts Centre. There she met Patricia Lawlor, arts co-ordinator at the Dunamaise, who was working on the development of a visual arts programme for the centre.
Through working together they became friends and the commemorative exhibition and auction was suggested by Lawlor. The idea was that artists who O'Hare had either worked directly with, or come into contact with, would be approached to donate a work for exhibition and auction.
The result is a marvellous and eclectic line-up, ranging across media and disciplines. It includes pieces by Rita Duffy, Alice Maher, Brian Maguire, Philip Napier, Richard Gorman, Shane Cullen, Ida Appleborg, Janet Pierce, Brigid Flannery, Robert Armstrong, Pauline Cummins, Charles Cullen, Ross Wilson, Geraldine O'Reilly, Sioban Piercy, Taffina Flood, Danny McCarthy, Ollie Whelan and Dermot Seymour to take just a random cross-section.
When O'Hare and her husband, painter Micky Donnelly, moved to Mountmellick in Laois in 1998, they were consciously in search of a less pressurised, more relaxed lifestyle. The house they moved to included generous studio space - and plenty of open space outdoors. "I was always a city boy," as Donnelly puts it, "and had never been that interested in gardens, but a garden had always been important for Noreen." Making a garden at Mountmellick became an important part of the less stressful life they were trying to pursue.
"Noreen loved Mountmellick. The people are wonderful and she made friends quickly. I think she knew half the women in the town within a few weeks. We spent a lot of time in the garden. In fact we didn't bother with the house very much, most of the work went into the garden. It gave us both a lot of pleasure." The garden he and O'Hare made has become an important source of inspiration for Donnelly's own paintings.
"I'm surrounded by it as I work," he explains. And it provided a great deal of material for his new solo exhibition, Notes From a Garden Shed which, coincidentally, opens this week at the Fenderesky Gallery in Belfast.
The auction of work donated as part of A Tribute takes place at the Heritage Hotel in Portlaoise on next Friday at 8 p.m. Eileen Dunne of RTÉ is the MC with music by the Susan Zalouf Quartet.
Tickets, which entitle you to bid, are available from Dunamaise Arts Centre. Tel: 0502-63355. The work will be at the Dunamaise until February 4th. Then it tours to Áras an Chontae, Tullamore (February 17th-March 14th), Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast (April 1st-16th) and St James's Hospital, Dublin (May 5th-June 6th)
