The Golden Fleece Award is an artistic prize fund established as a charitable bequest by the late Helen Lillias Mitchell.

Organization

According to Lillias's wish, the Trustees of the Award include members of Lillias's family and professional fund managers who work closely together to help run the award along the lines that she wished for. They are supported by a distinguished advisory panel whose knowledge and experience are invaluable in guiding the development of the Award. The panel comprises glass artist Roisin de Buitlear (Chairperson of the panel), sculptor Mick O'Kelly who also lectures on Sculpture in the Fine Art Department at NCAD, Bairbre Ní Fhloinn of the Department of Irish Folklore at UCD, Martin Gale of the RHA, silversmith Kevin O'Dwyer, and painter Veronica Rowe, who serves on the RDS Council and Committee of Arts.

Helen Lillias Mitchell 1916 - 2000

Lillias Mitchell was born in Rathgar, the youngest child of Dublin businessman David W Mitchell and his wife Frances Kirby, and sister of David and Frank Mitchell. As a child she showed artistic talent, and attended painting classes with Elizabeth Yeats and later, from the age of 11, with Lillian Davidson. Encouraged by Miss Davidson, she went on to study painting for two years under Dermod O'Brien at the Royal Hibernian Academy School, and also followed sculpture courses at the National College of Art. Then, in 1937-8, she spent a year in Switzerland, where she continued to study sculpture and modelling in clay.

In 1940 she won second place in the RDS Taylor Art Award for her very fine statue of "St Patrick Struggling in his Soul for Peace".

The whole of her subsequent career bears witness to her enthusiasm for the practice and teaching of the arts and crafts. After the War, in 1946, she opened her own Weaving Workshop in 84 Lower Mount Street, Dublin, where she first developed her personal Golden Fleece emblem. From 1949 she also became a regular attendant of Carl Malmsen's craft school at Viggbyhom, Sweden, to study traditional techniques of spinning and weaving. Art students were soon attracted to Lillias's Weaving Workshop, and in 1951 she was appointed to open a Weaving Department in the National College of Art and Design, where she continued to teach the arts of spinning, weaving and dyeing until her retirement. Lillias was always grateful to the then Minister of Education, General Richard Mulcahy, for this opportunity.

Lillias practised and taught craft weaving using natural fibres and dyes. Over the years she visited and studied the methods of traditional spinners, dyers and weavers in Donegal, Connemara and Kerry. In 1975 she founded the Irish Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, and in 1978 she published the fruits of her studies in her anthology Irish Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing, followed in 1986 by Irish Weaving: Discoveries and Personal Experiences.

"Tapestry of toadstools. Painted a water colour at the Glebe, Blessington, of toadstools. Then dyed and wove this tapestry from it. February 1979."






She maintained a lifelong involvement with the Royal Dublin Society, and its Arts and Crafts programmes in particular. In 1987, She founded the Lillias Mitchell Award which is offered every year in the RDS National Crafts Competition "For a weaver, student or postgraduate, enlarging his or her vision by research into spinning, dyeing or weaving, submitting both a written thesis and a sample of work". In recognition of her many contributions to the Arts in Ireland, she was made an Honorary Life Member of the RDS in 1993.

Lillias was an artist all through her life. She continued to paint and sketch actively until her 80s, exhibiting regularly at the Irish Watercolour Society. In 1995 she was elected Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, a fitting recognition of her lifelong dedication to art.

The setting up of a trust to fund the Golden Fleece Award was a project to which she devoted much thought in her later years. Her Letter of Wishes to her trustees says that:

"It has always been my wish that those with talent be encouraged to develop their talents, particularly in Ireland … I am very conscious of the fact that many artists cannot develop their talents because their art does not bring in a steady income for them and yet they need to support themselves financially … My wish is to give artists a ' boost ' in times of particular need … I have set up this trust [for] artists in need who are interested in pursuing their careers as artists."

The Trustees of the Helen Lillias Mitchell Artistic Fund are proud to carry out these wishes to the best of their ability.

Testimonials

You can see here a selection of video clips in which people closely involved in the Golden Fleece Award speak about the genesis of the prize and what it has meant to them.

Nancy Larchet, Chair of the artistic assessors panel from 2001 to 2007, talking about the objectives and scope of the Golden Fleece Award as set up by Lillias Mitchell, and about the variety and quality of the entries that it has attracted from the beginning. Click to watch video

Helen McAllister, first winner of the Award in 2002, speaks about what her art of creating embroidered shoe sculpture forms means to her. Click to watch video

Suzannah Vaughan, 2004 Award winner, talks about her art work in concrete and glass, and what winning the prize has meant to her financially and artistically. Click to watch video

Helen McAllister gives her views on what the Award stands for and what it implies about her status as an artist. Click to watch video