NUI Galway and the Burren College of Art in Co Clare will begin a joint master of fine art programme next year.
The programme was inaugurated yesterday by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera.
The private college, situated outside Ballyvaughan, was the brainchild of the late Michael Greene, who died suddenly at the age of 44 last year. Following his restoration of the 16th-century Newtown House and O'Loughlin Tower House in 1994, he founded the art college, which quickly became an established international centre. A two-year certificate course is run there but it is also a popular venue for visiting art students from overseas.
The master of fine art students will also be based at the college, living in holiday cottages and availing of individual studios, a sculpture workshop and photography facilities. Field trips to London and Paris are included.
A major part of the programme, which begins in September 2003, will involve tuition from visiting artists travelling from the Royal College of Art in London and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both of which are leading art colleges.
Ms Mary Hawkes-Greene, president of the Burren College of Art, said it had been the vision of her late husband that the area would again become a centre of education and creativity.
The north Burren area has a history of learning through the 12th century Corcomroe Abbey, a medieval bardic school, and the O'Davoren Brehon Law School, the inspiration for the annual Burren Law School, which is also based at Newtown House.
Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, the president of NUI Galway, said it was the first fine arts course the university had become involved in. "We see it as an integral part of the university's strategic aims to support education and training in the west region."
Ms Hawkes-Green said the location had turned out to be "an amazingly inspirational environment".
"We also set up a programme that would also see students from the US who wanted to spend a year abroad as part of their undergraduate degree."
She hoped the new master programme would attract more Irish students. Currently about a quarter of the student body of 36 is Irish. Although the course is HETAC approved, there are no grants for students' tuition fees. "This is an ongoing argument for independent colleges. There should be no reason why students should not get the same grant assistance."
From its early days, the college established an association with the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, which comprises 35 leading art colleges in the US.
"It makes sense that we have the NUI recognising that what we do is valuable, albeit different," Ms Hawkes-Greene said.
Ms Kathleen Sparrow, an art student at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, who is completing a three-month semester at the Burren college, said she was attracted there because of its remoteness and "to be really able to focus and not be distracted by a lot of the outside world".
She cites the sense of community of the area and the ease of being able to hitch a lift into the village. "It is so simplified here. You are not dealing with the intensity of life with family and running a home. I love it."
Dr Carol Becker, dean of faculty and vice-president for academic affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said the Burren was a dramatic but intimate landscape. "It is a wonderful opportunity for our faculty because this is a magnificent place to think about art."