DUBLIN.- Yesterday, Hennessy Ireland and IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) announced a new multi-year partnership and acquisition fund to purchase works by Irish and Irish based artists that are not yet part of the IMMA National Collection of Contemporary and Modern Art. Entitled, The Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection, this initiative has enabled IMMA to purchase multiple works for the Collection for the first time since 2011.

Artists will be nominated by a selection panel, including Director Sarah Glennie and Head of Collections Christina Kennedy, and each year will include an independent guest curator. This year’s guest panellist is Emma Lucy O’Brien from the VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow, with final recommendations approved by the IMMA Collection & Acquisitions Committee, in line with IMMA’s Collection policy.

Four works by four different Irish based artists have been selected, and the chosen artists for 2016 are Kevin Atherton, David Beattie, Rhona Byrne and Dennis McNulty. All of the works are installations that variously engage film, performance, new media, sound, found objects, everyday materials and audience participation. They are being exhibited as part of IMMA Collection: A Decade, an exhibition which provides a snapshot of how the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary art has developed over the past 10 years.

Kevin Atherton’s video installation is a recurring engagement with his younger self through a filmed conversation first begun in 1978 when he was 27 years old, and was most recently conducted by his more mature self in 2014, 36 years on. Rhona Byrne’s interactive work invites people to reconstruct her life-size sculptural installation and make their own environments. Through a kinetic juxtaposition of materials including a cymbal and piece of concrete David Beattie explores the physicality of sound and how we experience it in our everyday, while Dennis McNulty’s research for a commission in Norway has led to a layered, performative multi-component work that takes 1930s science writing and a 1980s pop song by a-ha to join ideas of universal time.

The Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection will see artists based in Ireland and Irish artists living abroad eligible for selection each year. Works will be sought that show excellence and innovation within contemporary art developments and represent a signal moment of achievement within the artist’s practice. Work must also have been made within the previous five years.

Commenting on the Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA, artist Kevin Atherton said: ‘For me the recent purchase of my work by the Irish Museum of Modern Art, made possible by the generous sponsorship of Hennessy, means a great deal, acting as it does as a confirmation of the welcome I felt when I first moved to Dublin from London in 1999. Having chosen to come to a country with a vibrant and dynamic contemporary art scene seventeen years ago, I feel a part of that scene and am delighted that my work be viewed through an Irish optic that although rooted in Ireland is international in outlook.’

David Beattie added to this by saying, ‘The purchase of the work by Hennessy for the IMMA collection is a significant moment for myself as it is the first of my works to become part of a museum collection. I think being part of the IMMA collection has added significance because of the important role that IMMA plays in the wider art community in Ireland and internationally.’

Elaine Cullen, Market Development Manager for Moet Hennessy Ireland, said: ‘This new partnership with IMMA continues Hennessy’s long tradition of supporting and nurturing Irish talent within arts and culture. It’s a privilege to enable the acquisition of such high calibre work for the National Collection at IMMA.’

Sarah Glennie, Director of IMMA, said: “IMMA is, above all else, committed to supporting artists’ work. Together with artists, and visionary partners like Hennessy Ireland, the museum works to support the development, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland. As Ireland’s contemporary visual artists continue to strengthen, Irish artists’ work is increasingly recognised on the international stage as well as making an invaluable contribution to Irish society. Artists are an essential voice in any contemporary society and IMMA is committed to supporting Irish artists’ ability to live and work in Ireland. The Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection is a key initiative in supporting this objective, making it possible for the museum to purchase work for the first time since 2011.”