Origins
The Golden Fleece Award is an artistic fund established as a charitable bequest by the late Helen Lillias Mitchell, who died in January 2000. She left this fund in place as part of her legacy to establish a generous annual award. She was herself an inspirational weaver and painter who wanted to help Irish artists working in and through the traditional arts and crafts to develop their own unique talent and vision. She was responsible for setting up the textile department of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and taught spinning, dyeing and weaving there for many years. She also founded the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in 1973.
Aims
The Golden Fleece Award aims to support and promote
a wide range of artistic creativity, recognising excellence
in painting, textiles and sculpture, glasswork, and
all the traditional crafts. The Award was launched in
2001 and is now widely recognised as a distinctive stamp
of creative support in the realm of Irish art. The artistic
achievement of the recipients to date offers a kaleidoscopic
range of responses to the world we live in.
Prizewinners
A list of shortlisted and winning canditates of the Award since its inception, together with samples of their work, can be found on this website under Prizewinners.
Video Extracts
You can see here a selection of video clips in which people closely involved in the Golden Fleece Award speak about
the prize and what it means to them.
|
