The Friends are invited on an exclusive tour of the RHA studios to meet the current studio artists Michael Canning, Siobhan McDonald, Isobel Henihen and Magnhild Opd¿l who will give a tour of their studios and discuss their work.

The RHA artist studios have a regular turnover and are offered to both emerging and more established artists over the course of the year, offering the Friends a wonderful opportunity to regularly visit different artists in their studios, take a look at their work and discuss their art with them over a glass of wine.



Walking Gallery Tours
2pm, Saturday 2 October

RHA Friends are invited to come on a walking tour to some of Dublin's favourite contemporary art galleries with Friends Co-ordinator Michelle Considine. Beginning in the Douglas Hyde gallery in Trinity College we will visit the exhibition 'Holding Together'. This exhibition is a collaboration between the Douglas Hyde and Trinity College and will consist of a large selection of artworks chosen from Trinity's Modern Art collection alongside younger, contemporary artist's works, selected by the Douglas Hyde. It will include artists such as Nano Reid, Tony O'Malley, William Scott, David Beattie, Miriam de Burca and Liam O' Callaghan. Next we will visit the Kerlin Gallery to see New Paintings by an artist very familiar to the RHA, Stephen McKenna PPRHA. This is McKenna's first solo show in the Kerlin since 2007 and is definitely a must see. Lastly we will visit the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery where Kevin Kavanagh has kindly offered to give the Friends a talk on one of Ireland's leading performance artists Amanda Coogan and her exhibition which will be on display in the gallery. Amanda Coogan was awarded the AIB prize 2004. She has performed and exhibited her work both nationally and internationally including the Venice Biennale '03, the Liverpool Biennal Ô04 and PS1, New York.

This is our first of hopefully many walking tours of Dublin's galleries, with the Friends of the RHA, so wrap up in your woolly scarfs and join us on Saturday 2nd October. Please contact Michelle Considine friends@rhagallery.ie to reserve your place.



Music in the RHA Jenna Harris and Shane Latimer
RHA Atrium 3 – 3.45pm, Sunday 26 September

Relax in the RHA on a Sunday afternoon and take in a jazz performance from singer Jenna Harris and guitarist Shane Latimer.

Both based in Dublin they have been performing together since graduating from Newpark Music Centre in Dublin and are active members in Dublin's creative music scene. Jenna Harris achieved an honours degree in Jazz performance, at the same time making history by being the first woman to hold a degree in Jazz Performance in Ireland. She has her own jazz Quintet and performs regularly in different venues throughout Dublin.

Shane Latimer, is a guitarist and composer based in Dublin. He performs with a variety of groups on a regular basis including Jenna Harris Quintet, Rhythm Method and Bang Hazard. He has performed at various festivals including Cork Jazz Festival and DEAF. Both musicians teach in the Bachelor of Arts Jazz Performance programme in Newpark Music Centre and are actively involved with youth training in Ireland.

They will be performing jazz standards from Leonard Cohen to some lesser-known compositions by jazz greats such as Betty Carter. This performance is open to the public, completely free and these two talented performers are well worth coming to see.



Friends Trip to Vienna
Thursday, October 7 – Sunday, October 10

The Friends of the RHA are invited to visit Vienna on an art filled weekend, with RHA Director Patrick T. Murphy and Friends Co-ordinators Michelle Considine and Rebecca Gale, to see some of Vienna's leading galleries and contemporary spaces. Also, as one of the highlights of the trip, there will be an exclusive tour of artist John Gerrard's studio. Gerrard is one of Ireland's leading contemporary artists and has kindly invited the Friends into his studio for a tour and talk on his work over a glass of wine. We also hope to visit some private collections in Vienna the details of which we should have closer to the trip.

Throughout the three days Patrick T. Murphy will lead the Friends through some of the main Viennese galleries such as the Secession (www.secession.at) the Mumok (www.mumok.at) and the Mak Museum (www.mak.at) and Kunsthistorisch Museum (www.khm.at) while also giving tours in some smaller contemporary galleries.

Friends should arrange their own hotel and flight bookings. We are flying with Aer Lingus and our flight details are as follows.

Thursday 7th Departs Dublin 7.20am : Arrives Vienna 11.10am
Sunday 10th Departs Vienna 11.10am: Arrives Dublin 1.35pm

If you would like to get some hotel details please contact Friends Co-ordinator Michelle by email friends@rhagallery.ie and she will give you a list of suitable, central hotels. We will be dining out on the Friday and Saturday evenings and if Friends would like to join us we will take bookings for these closer to the event. We will have further details on the smaller galleries and private collections we will be visiting and lunch/dinner restaurant bookings closer to the date.

We hope you will join us on this trip as we're sure this one will be as exciting as our previous trips. There is a cover charge of €150 per Friend to take part in the trip and if you would like any more information please contact Michelle on (01) 661 2558 or email friends@rhagallery.ie. If you are interested in joining us please confirm your booking as soon as possible to guarantee your place.



Studio Visit, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Geraldine O'Neill
2pm, Saturday 23 October

Painters Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Geraldine O'Neill have kindly offered to open up their Dublin based studios (across the road from each other) to the Friends of the RHA and give us the opportunity to see their paintings, work in progress and discuss their art practice. With vastly different painting styles it will be an interesting experience for the Friends to see how they both compare and contrast in their painting practice.

Both artists are represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. Sinéad N’ Mhaonaigh is an abstract painter who greatly focuses on the layering and texture of paint. Her paintings are worked up in many thick layers of oil paint and she often uses impliments to scrape away the surface or creates linear aspects which add a depth, perspective and form. A reoccuring form in her work is the vessel which can be interpreted by the viewer in many different ways. She has exhibited widely and is the recipient of the 2010 Hennessy Craig Scholarship and short-listed for the AIB art prize 2009.

Geraldine O'Neill's painting plays with still life painting conventions, she grabs her source material from the overlooked and forgotten, from background fragments of art historical paintings, scenes from Chernobyl, stilled birds and discarded objects and she then forces them into uneasy relationships to each other, making us look again at the painted and question the politics of painting. She has a solo exhibition coming up in the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery in November and has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad. Her work is held in the European Central bank and OPW's collection among others.

FREE RHA Lecture Series for
Friends of the RHA

As one of the major perks of being a Friend of the RHA we are glad to announce that all Friends will gain free access to the RHA lecture series beginning in September (see Schools section of newsletter for details). This special discount is a huge benefit for the Friends as each lecture will have a submission fee of Û10 to the general public. Please show Friends membership card on entry..


To reserve places for any of the following events, please contact Michelle or Rebecca on (01) 661 2558 or email friends@rhagallery.ie. Places may be limited for certain events so please book well in advance.