Irish Museum of Modern Art announces appointment of Sarah Glennie as new Director

DUBLIN.- The Chairperson and Board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art today (13 January 2012) announced the appointment of Sarah Glennie, currently Director of the Irish Film Institute, as the new Director of IMMA, where she previously held the post of Curator from 1997 to 2001.

Sarah Glennie has been working professionally in the cultural realm for sixteen years and has extensive experience of directing and working in a number of public cultural institutions in Ireland and Britain. Prior to joining the Irish Film Institute (IFI) in 2008, where she oversaw a major redevelopment programme, she was Artistic Director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo. While there she initiated a nationally and internationally significant programme, including The Eternal Now: Warhol and the Factory and an exhibition and unique performance by Patti Smith. She has also curated many other notable visual art projects, both in Ireland and internationally.

Sarah Glennie was born in Britain and moved to Ireland in 1995 to work at IMMA, where she curated a number of projects, including solo exhibitions by Olafur Eliasson, and Shirin Neshat and the major public art project GHOST SHIP by Dorothy Cross. In 2001 she moved to The Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects where her curated projects included Paul McCarthy at Tate Modern, and Stopover at the Venice Biennale 2003. In addition, in 2004 she co-curated Romantic Detachment at PS1/MoMA and in 2005 a major new film commission by Tacita Dean for Cork Capital of Culture. She was also the Commissioner of Ireland’s participation at the 51st Venice Biennale 2005. In 2008 she became Director of the IFI, where she oversaw significant development of the Institute’s activities, nationally and internationally.

Commenting on the appointment IMMA’s Chairperson, Eoin McGonigal, said: “Everyone at IMMA is delighted to have secured as the Museum’s new Director someone with such an impressive record of achievement in the arts, more especially the visual arts. I am confident that Sarah is exceptionally well placed to build on the Museum’s very considerable achievements over the past 20 years. It is interesting that Sarah began her distinguished career in the Irish arts sector at IMMA. I believe we can all look forward to the impact her well-known creativity and energy will have on the organisation over the coming years”, he said.

Eoin McGonigal also paid tribute to the outgoing Director, Enrique Juncosa. “Over the past nine years Enrique has transformed virtually every aspect of the Museum’s activities. Through his standing in the international arts community, through his sheer ambition for the Museum and through his faith in what it could achieve, he has increased IMMA’s reputation immeasurably, both at home and abroad”, he said.

Sarah Glennie said: “IMMA makes a vibrant and valuable contribution to contemporary Irish society and I am truly honoured to be given the opportunity to lead this great institution into the next important phase of its development. I look forward to working with the Museum’s excellent team and the wider arts community to build on the extraordinary legacy of the Museum’s first twenty years, and to ensure that Ireland continues to have a modern art museum of distinction and international significance”.

Sarah Glennie will take up the post of Director in April 2012.

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