Following the announcement in December that Kevin Rafter is stepping down as Arts Council Chairperson to take up a role as Fulbright Professor with Boston College in the US, the Department of the Arts is now seeking applications to fill the vacancy as well as seven board positions.

Appointments to the Arts Council board are for five years and involve ten meetings per year as well as sitting on sub-committees. Candidates for the Chairperson role must have leadership experience at a senior level, and board members must have expertise in one of the following categories: professional arts experience; business/management; young people, children and education; community and participation; public engagement and digital media; diversity, equality and inclusion; or climate and sustainable transition.

There is space for twelve members plus a Chairperson on the board. Currently it has just ten members. Dónall Curtin, former partner with the accountancy form Byrne Curtin Kelly, completed his term in December 2023. Five others will conclude their term in 2024. They are: business consultant Jillian van Turnhout; Mark O’Kelly, Head of Painting at NCAD; writer Melatu Uche Okorie; Róise Goan, artistic coordinator at the Viernulvier arts centre in Ghent, Belgium; and Polish-Irish writer and a migrant rights activist Teresa Buczkowska. 

The other members, who will continue serving until 2027, are flute player and lecturer in folklore at UCC, Aoife Granville; music publicist and founder of the campaign Why Not Her?, Linda Coogan Byrne; Andrew Clancy of Clancy Moore architects and Professor of Architecture at Kingston University London; Brian Lavery, a commercial manager at Google; and Philomena Poole, former Chief Executive of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Appointments are made through the government’s Public Appointments Service. The deadline for applying for either the Chairperson role or the board member positions is Thursday 11 January at 3pm. For full details, download the document below or visit https://stateboards.ie.