Advisory Panel

The Golden Fleece Advisory Panel is an independent committee engaged by the Golden Fleece Trust to review and provide feedback on Golden Fleece Award applications. The five Advisory Panel members are specialists with backgrounds in visual art, design, craft and applied arts, and now usually serve a term of three years.

Following a review of applications received, every Panel member submits a personal longlist of ten applicants. From these they select a shortlist of up to ten artists at a special meeting held early the following year. Following this, the Chair of the Advisory Panel presents the Panel’s shortlist and their recommendations for the Award to the Board of Trustees, who then decide how the Award will be distributed.

*Please note that current members of the Advisory Panel (named below) should NOT be named as referees by applicants when applying for the Golden Fleece Award.

2023 Golden Fleece Award Advisory Panel

Angela O’Kelly - Panel Chair
Jeweller and Head of Design for Body & Environment, NCAD
Angela O’Kelly studied Jewellery & Silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland and completed an MA in Arts Management & Cultural Policy at University College Dublin in 2004. Her work crosses the boundaries of jewellery, textiles and sculpture, combining eclectic materials and textures through the use of traditional techniques and new technologies. She has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad, currently works as Head of Design for Body & Environment at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, and is an established curator of craft and design.

Roger Bennett
Woodturner
Roger Bennett is a woodturner, a maker of distinctive bowls and vessels which are coloured and inlaid with silver. He has exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally; examples of his work are included in numerous private and public collections, including those of the National Museum of Ireland, Design and Crafts Council Ireland and Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A former Board member of Visual Artists Ireland, he is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (Modern Languages, 1976) and of the Crafts Council’s Business Development Course (1996). He has written numerous articles and essays about craft, and examples of his own work are available to view on his website.

Hugh Mulholland
Creative Director, Visual Arts, the MAC
Hugh Mulholland is Creative Director, Visual Arts at the MAC, Belfast, a position he has held since 2012. He was previously Director, the third space gallery, Belfast (2006-2012) and Director of Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (1997-2006), and was founding Director of Context Gallery Derry (now CCA) (1992-1997). Mulholland has also worked as an independent curator and was Commissioner of Northern Ireland’s first presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2005 with a group exhibition titled ‘The Nature of Things’. He curated Northern Ireland’s exhibition at the following Biennale with a solo show of work by Willie Doherty. He was curator for Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2006 and 2007, as well as curating exhibitions internationally in Berlin, Istanbul and Italy.

Clíodhna Shaffrey
Director, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
Clíodhna Shaffrey is Director of Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin. She is part of the curatorial team for Ireland at Venice 2022, the national representation of Ireland at the 59^th Venice Biennale, presenting Niamh O’Malley’s exhibition ‘Gather’. Clíodhna was previously Visual Arts Advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland, and Arts Officer with two local authorities in Ireland. She has worked extensively as an independent curator as well as implementing a diverse range of creative work across curation, policy, and arts planning.

Dr Audrey Whitty
Director, National Library of Ireland
Dr Audrey Whitty is the Director of the National Library, and formerly worked as Deputy Director and Head of Collections and Learning, National Museum of Ireland (NMI), where she was responsible for all aspects of the care, preservation and interpretation of the 5 million objects in the collections across the four museums that make up the NMI. This included management of the four Curatorial departments, Conservation, Registration, Education, Photography, Design, publications and the NMI’s exhibitions programme.

From 2015-19 Dr Whitty was Keeper of the Art and Industrial Division (Decorative Arts and History), NMI. She was responsible for all collections, exhibitions, and leading the curatorial department and team on the Collins Barracks site. During 2013 and 2014 she was Curator of European and Asian Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, New York where she was responsible for an extensive collection. From 2001 to 2013, Dr Whitty was Curator of Ceramics, Glass and Asian collections, Art and Industrial Division, NMI. She has curated numerous exhibitions, most notably A Dubliner’s Collection of Asian Art: The Albert Bender Exhibition and the National Museum’s visible storage facility What’s In Store? (approx. 16,500 objects). She is the Chair of the Irish Museums Association, a trustee of the British Glass Foundation/White House Cone Museum of Glass, UK and is also a board member of North Lands Creative in Scotland.

Past Advisory Panel Members (2002-2022)

Past members of the Golden Fleece Award Advisory Panel include Róisín de Buitléar (glass artist, former lecturer in the Glass Department at NCAD, Dublin and former Chair of the Golden Fleece Advisory Panel), Carey Clarke (artist and Past President of the Royal Hibernian Academy), Terry Dunne (designer and maker of handwoven tapestries, floor rugs and textile art pieces), Martin Gale (visual artist and former Board member of the National Gallery of Ireland), Nancy Larchet (close friend of Lillias Mitchell, prominent member of the Watercolour Society of Ireland, and original Chair of the Golden Fleece Advisory Panel), Dr Declan Long (Art critic and Co-Director of the MA ‘Art in the Contemporary World’, NCAD), Eoin Mac Lochlainn (visual artist and recipient of the Golden Fleece Award 2008), Helen McAllister (Head of Applied Materials at NCAD, Dublin), Catherine Marshall (art historian, editor and curator), Colin Martin (visual artist, lecturer and Head of the RHA School), Ann Mulrooney (creative industries leader and recipient of a Golden Fleece Merit Award in 2002, the Award's first year), Patrick T. Murphy (Director, Royal Hibernian Academy), Bairbre Ní Fhloinn (lecturer in Irish folklore and Ethnology, University College Dublin), Kevin O’Dwyer (silversmith, sculptor and freelance curator), Dara O’Leary (Arts Programme Manager, Royal Dublin Society), Neil Reid (ceramicist and former Chair of the Golden Fleece Advisory Panel), Veronica Rowe (weaver and textile historian) and Robert Russell (printmaker and Studio Director, Graphic Studio Dublin).