Minister launches Irish art exhibition to support US/NI Investment Conference

Culture Minister Edwin Poots MLA today revealed that masterpieces from the Ulster Museum’s fine art collection are going on display at Stormont to coincide with the major US-Northern Ireland Investment Conference.

The special exhibition, which will be displayed in the Long Gallery in Parliament Buildings, includes famous works by major artists such as Sir John Lavery, Jack Butler Yeats, William Conor and John Luke.

Minister Poots said: “The Ulster Museum holds some of our finest masterpieces and this exhibition will give our American guests a taste of our cultural life. As well as being a superb location for investment we have much to offer through our museums and other cultural venues.”

Among the paintings on display include James Glen Wilson’s An Emigrant Ship Leaving Ireland (1852), Aloysius O’Kelly’s Huckleberry Finn (c1885), Jack Butler Yeats’ On Through the Silent Lands (1951) and Edward McGuire’s Portrait of Seamus Heaney (1974).

Tim Cooke, Chief Executive of National Museums Northern Ireland, said: “We are delighted to play a role in showcasing Northern Ireland to American business leaders. Participants in the conference are also getting a chance to see a second exhibition of Irish art from the Ulster Museum when they visit Hillsborough Castle. They will also visit the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum for the opening reception.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The collection of fine art from the Ulster Museum, which will be displayed in the Long Gallery in Parliament Buildings, includes famous works by artists named above and also comprises works such as Charles Lamb A Lough Neagh Fisherman, Gerard Dillon Yellow Bungalow, William Conor Coortin’, and John Luke The Fox.

2. Also this month, the Ulster Museum will be loaning twenty landscape paintings to Hillsborough Castle. The exhibition, entitled Visions of Ireland, comprises works featuring rural and urban views of Ireland, both North and South. The exhibition runs from 7th May – 29th August in the Downshire Gallery. The Visions of Ireland exhibition includes Frank McKelvey's Evening, Ballycastle, James Humbert Craig's Turf Bog, Connemara, Hans Iten’s Her Little Holding, Nathaniel Hone’s Landscape with Cattle and Bartlett’s The End of the Fair, Back to the Island.

3. The Ulster Museum is currently closed for a £14.7million redevelopment project. The investment will provide a modern museum facility incorporating a dramatic ground floor display known as the ‘Hall of Wonders’ showcasing some of the museum’s iconic objects, additional gallery space and new interactive discovery areas for Art, History and Science.

4. Media contact: Kathryn Kirk, JPR, kathryn.kirk@jprni.com 028 9076 0066 or 078 34049137.

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