Ulster Society of Women Artists

Last updated

The Ulster Society of Women Artists was founded in 1957 by Gladys Maccabe with the assistance of Olive Henry and others, as there were no arts societies in Northern Ireland that would accept female members. [1] The society aims to

"promote and encourage a high standard of art in Northern Ireland, to maintain a high standard in exhibitions that reflects upon the membership, and to actively seek out and encourage new talent". [2] [3]

The patron of the Society was the Duchess of Abercorn. [2] The first president of the Society was Gladys Maccabe, with Deborah Brown and Alice Berger Hammersclag acting as joint honorary secretaries and Renée Bickerstaff as honorary treasurer. [4] The first committee consisted of Kathleen Bell, Vera Mooney, Elsie Leonard, Elsie Ronaldson and Helen Ross. Honorary members included Mary O'Malley and Dehra Parker. [5] In the early days of the organisation members met in each others houses before finding a home at the Cathedral Buildings on Donegall Street in December 1958. [5]

Their first exhibition included oils, watercolours, drawings and embroidery and was hosted at the Piccolo Gallery, Belfast in June 1958. [6] USPWA held their First Annual exhibition at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in April 1959, where Barbara Hepworth and Norah McGuinness were amongst the invited artists. [7]

At the 1960 Annual General Meeting it was decided that Annual exhibitions be alternated between Belfast, and centres outside Ulster each year. It was further carried that an external juror be appointed each year to select works for inclusion in major exhibitions. [8] Father Jack O'Hanlon selected paintings for the Society's first exhibition in Dublin, hosted by the Brown Thomas Theatre Gallery in 1960. [9]

Membership is by juried selection of submitted works. [4] It takes four years to achieve full membership. [2] The society has expanded membership from the original ten members to one hundred and twenty-five in 2017. [10]

Related Research Articles

Anne Madden is an English-born painter, who is well known in both Ireland and France where she has divided her time since her marriage to Louis le Brocquy in 1958.

Basil Joseph BlackshawHRUA, HRHA was a Northern Irish artist specialising in animal paintings, portraits and landscapes and an Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy.

Colin Middleton was a Northern Irish landscape painter, printmaker and educator.

Neil Shawcross, RHA, HRUA(born 15 March 1940) is an artist born in Kearsley, Lancashire, England, and resident in Northern Ireland since 1962. Primarily a portrait painter, his subjects have included Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney, novelist Francis Stuart, former Lord Mayor of Belfast David Cook, footballer Derek Dougan and fellow artists Colin Middleton and Terry Frost. He also paints the figure and still life, taking a self-consciously childlike approach to composition and colour. His work also includes printmaking, and he has designed stained glass for the Ulster Museum and St. Colman's Church, Lambeg, County Antrim. He lives in Hillsborough, County Down.

Raymond PiperHRUA HRHA MUniv was a botanist and an artist.

Deborah BrownHRUA is a Northern Irish sculptor. She is well known in Ireland for her pioneering exploration of the medium of fibre glass in the 1960s and has established herself as one of the country's leading sculptors, achieving extensive international acclaim.

Gladys Maccabe British artist

Gladys Maccabe, MBE HRUAFRSA MA(Hons)ROI was a Northern Irish artist, journalist and founder of The Ulster Society of Women Artists.

Mercy HunterHRUA PPRUA ARCA MBE was a Northern Irish artist, calligrapher and teacher. Hunter was a founding member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists, where she was later to become president and she was also a past president of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.

Olive HenryHRUA was a Northern Irish artist known for her painting, photography and stained glass design. She was a founding member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists and is believed to have been the only female stained glass artist working in Northern Ireland in the first half of the twentieth century.

Terence Philip FlanaganPPRUA HRUA RHAMBE was a landscape painter and teacher from Northern Ireland.

Charles Vincent LambARHAHRUA was an Irish landscape and portrait painter.

Alice Berger Hammerschlag née Berger was an Austrian artist. She settled in Belfast and while creating abstract paintings also had a number of creative and administrative roles in Northern Ireland.

Dennis Henry Osborne HRUA was a British artist and teacher who worked mainly in oil and watercolour. Osborne exhibited widely in Canada, Ireland and the UK. He was a follower of the Euston Road School and the Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. He was a Honorary Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.

Jean Osborne was an artist from Northern Ireland who worked primarily in oils and watercolours.

Romeo ToogoodARCAHRUA was an Ulster artist and teacher who specialized in landscape painting.

Cherith McKinstryARUA, MA was an Irish painter and sculptor.

Robert McKinstryOBE, ARIBA was a Northern Irish architect who specialised in conservation and restoration work. McKinstry worked on many prestigious projects including the restoration of St Anne's Cathedral, the Crown Liquor Saloon, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, and the Grand Opera House, Belfast.

Annie Florence Violet McAdooARUAARCA was an Ulster born watercolour and landscape painter, a graduate from the Royal College of Art, a one time secretary of the Ulster Academy of Arts, and a time served educator.

William Robert Gordon HRUA was an influential Northern Irish landscape and portrait painter, and an educator. He was a founding member of the Ulster Arts Club and the Ulster Literary Theatre.

Renée BickerstaffHRUA (1904–1983) was a self-taught Ulster artist, a founding member and treasurer of the Ulster Society of Women Artists. She was also the honorary secretary of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts for a number of years.

References

  1. ↑ "Ulster Society of Women Artists". Artist Biographies. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ulster Society of Women Artists". Culture Northern Ireland. 17 July 2006. Archived from the original on 14 October 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  3. ↑ David Doughan; Professor Peter Gordon; Peter Gordon (3 June 2014). Dictionary of British Women's Organisations, 1825-1960. Taylor & Francis. p. 187. ISBN   978-1-136-89777-1.
  4. 1 2 "Club for women". Belfast Telegraph. 10 January 1958. p. 7. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Women artists to show own works". Belfast Telegraph. 10 December 1958. p. 8. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  6. ↑ Jamison, Kenneth (19 June 1958). "First display by Women Artists". Belfast Telegraph. p. 5. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  7. ↑ Flanagan, T P (11 April 1959). "Interesting work at Women Artists' show". Belfast Telegraph. p. 3. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  8. ↑ "Women Artists' exhibition plans". Belfast Telegraph. 6 April 1960. p. 5. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  9. ↑ "Northern Women Artists invaded Dublin". Dublin Evening Mail. 10 June 1960. p. 5. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  10. ↑ Henderson, Sarah (19 November 2017). "I believe we're put on earth to support each other at USWA we do exactly that". go.gale.com. Sunday Life. p. 36. Retrieved 1 July 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.