Hugh Mulholland cuts a slight figure in the towering central atrium of Belfast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre (Mac), but his stature in the contemporary arts world is immense. He helped put art on the map in Derry long before it made City of Culture status, ran Belfast’s first publicly funded contemporary arts venue for nearly a decade and was the force behind Northern Ireland’s pioneering forays into the international arts scene via the Venice Biennale.
It is an impressive CV, which also includes a stint curating visual arts at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and a recent role in choosing Britain’s representative for the 2018 Venice Biennale, the Northern Irish artist Cathy Wilkes. But Mulholland prefers to stay in the wings and let the artists come to the fore, even in an iconic venue such as the Mac.
It is a very modern venue and despite being wedged in between two other buildings, there is no sense of being cramped. Full of wide open spaces, it has clever architectural pillars and balconies – an asymmetrical design that captures visitors’ attention. As does Permanent Present, the Mac’s only permanent artwork, a sculpture by the Irish artist Mark Garry, which was commissioned by the Thomas Devlin Fund and the Mac in honour of a young boy who was murdered in the Troubles. The sculpture’s 400 copper wires in the main foyer create a spectrum of colour that changes with the light.
But it is not these extraordinary spaces that determine Mulholland’s approach. “My programming is still very much artist-centred,” he says. “How can these spaces accommodate their work? The variety of gallery sizes allows artists to produce work at scale or to fill the nooks and crannies in other parts of the building. Often, our audio work can be heard in the foyer and cafe, and people appreciate that.”
Mulholland studied fine arts at Belfast Arts College and wanted to become an artist himself. But he became interested in “the infrastructure of art, the spaces where ambitions of artists could be realised” and the curatorial tasks that were needed to make that happen.
Art curation was an embryonic field in those days with few opportunities, so Mulholland took an arts administration course at University College Dublin and then became an arts officer for the London Borough of Greenwich.
In between, he had an experience that changed his life. A placement at the end of his arts administration course took him to the Orchard Gallery in Derry for six weeks, where the charismatic reign of its curator Declan McGonagle had drawn international attention to what had been seen as a peripheral spot for contemporary art. Mulholland’s six weeks at the Orchard stretched to 18 months, as he immersed himself in the book fairs, seminars, concerts and innovative exhibitions that were a feature of McGonagle’s approach. The Orchard attracted artists such as Richard Hamilton, John Hilliard and Richard Long.
“McGonagle was bringing not only a high calibre of international art to Derry, but he was also ensuring that the art related to the place and that there was meaningful engagement with the people of Derry,” says Mulholland. “It was there that I learned to appreciate and respect the work of artists, enabling them to realise their intentions as closely as possible, and how to identify ways of finding solutions to creative problems.”
Supporting emerging artists
After his stint in London, Mulholland returned to Derry to set up a gallery within the walls of the Playhouse theatre. The Context space filled the gap between college and professional practice, allowing emerging artists to show a body of work in a single show rather than the group or graduate shows to which they had been confined.
Among the ambitious programmes that Context pioneered was an EU-funded cross-border project that transcended not only geographical borders but crossed disciplines as well, mixing visual arts with theatre, dance and literature. Context also brought the names of Northern Irish artists such as Keith Wilson and Mary McIntyre to a wider audience.
In 1997, Mulholland left Derry to take the helm at the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, which he ran until 2006. The gallery became popular with the arts community, bringing internationally acclaimed artists such as Yoko Ono and Gilbert and George to a Northern Irish audience for the first time, while nurturing artists from Ireland.
It closed amid controversy in 2006, when Arts Council Northern Ireland (ACNI) pulled its funding after a series of disagreements over finances.
Mulholland maintains that the relationship between the gallery and its main funder soured after the Ormeau Baths Gallery withdrew its support for the ACNI’s plans for a new arts venue in the city centre. Ironically, after many twists and turns, that arts centre is now the Mac.
“I was supportive of the idea at first,” he says. “I wasn’t insisting on having a standalone arts space. But suddenly the arts centre was having to be all manner of things. There were plans for schools of music and dance to be located there, and the fear was that the gallery space would get squeezed out. Eventually the gallery board felt there was no clarity about our future in the project and we had no option but to withdraw.”
Interdisciplinary approach
While still at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Mulholland persuaded ACNI to back Northern Ireland’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. “I felt home-grown artists were missing out on an opportunity to have an international platform,” he says. “Scotland and Wales were doing it with great success, why not Northern Ireland?”
With the support of ACNI and the British Council, Northern Ireland entered first in 2005, then again in 2007 and 2009. Mulholland curated the first two, including a show by the Turner Prize winner Willie Doherty. The pavilion was described at the time as “the most significant event in Northern Irish visual arts for a generation” and demonstrated that the region’s artistic life did not have to be dominated by the “bombs and bullets” narrative.
“I wanted to get away from the Troubles lens and show the variety and quality of work by artists in Northern Ireland,” says Mulholland.
By 2010, austerity had put an end to that international platform and the year before proved to be Northern Ireland’s last showing in Venice, a decision Mulholland still views as a mistake. But some compensation is provided in the fact that Cathy Wilkes, the Northern Ireland-born artist who is now based in Glasgow, has been chosen as Britain’s representative for the 2018 biennale, a decision Mulholland had a hand in as part of the selection panel.
In 2007, Mulholland set up his own gallery, Third Space, in Belfast’s emerging Cathedral Quarter, with the intention of providing a facility where artists could display their work and not feel forced to move away from the city. But the lack of a market for contemporary art in the region meant the gallery was unsustainable.
Mulholland acted as a consultant for Ulster University’s art collection and curated the visual arts input in the Kilkenny Arts Festival, viewed as the premier arts event on both sides of the border, before getting the call to act as an adviser to the Mac, which was then a building site. He organised the programming for the first year after the venue opened in 2012 and took on the post of arts curator.
As at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, the programme has exhibitions by lesser-known Irish and Northern Irish artists as well as major names such as David Hockney, whose 2016 show brought in 25,000 visitors.
For a recent exhibition, Mulholland reintroduced Gilbert and George, and this summer the Mac will present Fragmented Mind, a show looking at mental health through work by multiple artists. The exhibition has also cemented partnerships with other galleries, including the Whitworth in Manchester and the John Hansard in Southampton, as well as organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, demonstrating the Mac’s cross-disciplinary philosophy of combining visual arts with theatre, dance and public events. The centrepiece of the show is a commissioned work by Lindsay Seers, Every Thought There Ever Was, which explores the extraordinary brain functioning that occurs when someone has schizophrenia.
Since opening in 2012, 1.5 million visitors have come through the doors of the Mac, attending more than 3,000 live performances and 39 visual art exhibitions. In 2015, the venue was shortlisted for the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year prize, which was won by the Whitworth. Despite ongoing funding issues and teething problems with the building itself, the Mac’s ambition to be a world-class attraction is intact. For example, it supports a £20,000 prize for international artists, the largest such award in Northern Ireland.
Recently, ACNI has given the arts centre a vote of confidence, boosting its annual grant from £900,000 to £1.2m. The extra funding will allow the Mac to redouble its efforts to gain other sources of income, but Mulholland is firm in his belief that public sector support is vital for the arts, pointing out that 25% of the arts centre’s visitors come from outside Northern Ireland.
“If Belfast wants to sell itself as a cultural destination, it is going to have to support culture. There is no getting away from that.”
Hugh Mulholland at a glance
Hugh Mulholland has been in charge of visual arts at the Metropolitan Arts Centre since it opened in 2012.
He studied Fine Arts at Belfast College of Art and spent 18 months as an arts officer with the London Borough of Greenwich, before opening the Context gallery in Derry.
He was the director of the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast from 1997 to 2006. He opened the Third Space Gallery in Belfast in 2007 and curated the Northern Ireland pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and 2007. He was a member of the selection panel for the British pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale.
Earlier this year he brought Gilbert and George to the Mac, the first major presentation of the artists’ work in Northern Ireland since their exhibition at Ormeau Baths Gallery in 1999.
The Mac at a glance
The Metropolitan Arts Centre (Mac) in Belfast is a cultural hub that opened in 2012. Since opening, it has become a beacon for the ongoing regeneration of Belfast.
Open 363 days per year, the gallery runs a programme that includes visual art, theatre, dance, family workshops and more. Art exhibitions are free to all visitors.
Since 2012, 1.5 million visitors have come to the Mac. The gallery is run by 21 staff and a team of volunteers.
The Mac receives regular funding from the Arts Council Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, and the Department for Communities.
Patrick Kelly is a freelance writer.
The Museums Association Conference & Exhibition is in Belfast on 8-10 November.
It is an impressive CV, which also includes a stint curating visual arts at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and a recent role in choosing Britain’s representative for the 2018 Venice Biennale, the Northern Irish artist Cathy Wilkes. But Mulholland prefers to stay in the wings and let the artists come to the fore, even in an iconic venue such as the Mac.
It is a very modern venue and despite being wedged in between two other buildings, there is no sense of being cramped. Full of wide open spaces, it has clever architectural pillars and balconies – an asymmetrical design that captures visitors’ attention. As does Permanent Present, the Mac’s only permanent artwork, a sculpture by the Irish artist Mark Garry, which was commissioned by the Thomas Devlin Fund and the Mac in honour of a young boy who was murdered in the Troubles. The sculpture’s 400 copper wires in the main foyer create a spectrum of colour that changes with the light.
But it is not these extraordinary spaces that determine Mulholland’s approach. “My programming is still very much artist-centred,” he says. “How can these spaces accommodate their work? The variety of gallery sizes allows artists to produce work at scale or to fill the nooks and crannies in other parts of the building. Often, our audio work can be heard in the foyer and cafe, and people appreciate that.”
Mulholland studied fine arts at Belfast Arts College and wanted to become an artist himself. But he became interested in “the infrastructure of art, the spaces where ambitions of artists could be realised” and the curatorial tasks that were needed to make that happen.
Art curation was an embryonic field in those days with few opportunities, so Mulholland took an arts administration course at University College Dublin and then became an arts officer for the London Borough of Greenwich.
In between, he had an experience that changed his life. A placement at the end of his arts administration course took him to the Orchard Gallery in Derry for six weeks, where the charismatic reign of its curator Declan McGonagle had drawn international attention to what had been seen as a peripheral spot for contemporary art. Mulholland’s six weeks at the Orchard stretched to 18 months, as he immersed himself in the book fairs, seminars, concerts and innovative exhibitions that were a feature of McGonagle’s approach. The Orchard attracted artists such as Richard Hamilton, John Hilliard and Richard Long.
“McGonagle was bringing not only a high calibre of international art to Derry, but he was also ensuring that the art related to the place and that there was meaningful engagement with the people of Derry,” says Mulholland. “It was there that I learned to appreciate and respect the work of artists, enabling them to realise their intentions as closely as possible, and how to identify ways of finding solutions to creative problems.”
Supporting emerging artists
After his stint in London, Mulholland returned to Derry to set up a gallery within the walls of the Playhouse theatre. The Context space filled the gap between college and professional practice, allowing emerging artists to show a body of work in a single show rather than the group or graduate shows to which they had been confined.
Among the ambitious programmes that Context pioneered was an EU-funded cross-border project that transcended not only geographical borders but crossed disciplines as well, mixing visual arts with theatre, dance and literature. Context also brought the names of Northern Irish artists such as Keith Wilson and Mary McIntyre to a wider audience.
In 1997, Mulholland left Derry to take the helm at the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, which he ran until 2006. The gallery became popular with the arts community, bringing internationally acclaimed artists such as Yoko Ono and Gilbert and George to a Northern Irish audience for the first time, while nurturing artists from Ireland.
It closed amid controversy in 2006, when Arts Council Northern Ireland (ACNI) pulled its funding after a series of disagreements over finances.
Mulholland maintains that the relationship between the gallery and its main funder soured after the Ormeau Baths Gallery withdrew its support for the ACNI’s plans for a new arts venue in the city centre. Ironically, after many twists and turns, that arts centre is now the Mac.
“I was supportive of the idea at first,” he says. “I wasn’t insisting on having a standalone arts space. But suddenly the arts centre was having to be all manner of things. There were plans for schools of music and dance to be located there, and the fear was that the gallery space would get squeezed out. Eventually the gallery board felt there was no clarity about our future in the project and we had no option but to withdraw.”
Interdisciplinary approach
While still at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Mulholland persuaded ACNI to back Northern Ireland’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. “I felt home-grown artists were missing out on an opportunity to have an international platform,” he says. “Scotland and Wales were doing it with great success, why not Northern Ireland?”
With the support of ACNI and the British Council, Northern Ireland entered first in 2005, then again in 2007 and 2009. Mulholland curated the first two, including a show by the Turner Prize winner Willie Doherty. The pavilion was described at the time as “the most significant event in Northern Irish visual arts for a generation” and demonstrated that the region’s artistic life did not have to be dominated by the “bombs and bullets” narrative.
“I wanted to get away from the Troubles lens and show the variety and quality of work by artists in Northern Ireland,” says Mulholland.
By 2010, austerity had put an end to that international platform and the year before proved to be Northern Ireland’s last showing in Venice, a decision Mulholland still views as a mistake. But some compensation is provided in the fact that Cathy Wilkes, the Northern Ireland-born artist who is now based in Glasgow, has been chosen as Britain’s representative for the 2018 biennale, a decision Mulholland had a hand in as part of the selection panel.
In 2007, Mulholland set up his own gallery, Third Space, in Belfast’s emerging Cathedral Quarter, with the intention of providing a facility where artists could display their work and not feel forced to move away from the city. But the lack of a market for contemporary art in the region meant the gallery was unsustainable.
Mulholland acted as a consultant for Ulster University’s art collection and curated the visual arts input in the Kilkenny Arts Festival, viewed as the premier arts event on both sides of the border, before getting the call to act as an adviser to the Mac, which was then a building site. He organised the programming for the first year after the venue opened in 2012 and took on the post of arts curator.
As at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, the programme has exhibitions by lesser-known Irish and Northern Irish artists as well as major names such as David Hockney, whose 2016 show brought in 25,000 visitors.
For a recent exhibition, Mulholland reintroduced Gilbert and George, and this summer the Mac will present Fragmented Mind, a show looking at mental health through work by multiple artists. The exhibition has also cemented partnerships with other galleries, including the Whitworth in Manchester and the John Hansard in Southampton, as well as organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, demonstrating the Mac’s cross-disciplinary philosophy of combining visual arts with theatre, dance and public events. The centrepiece of the show is a commissioned work by Lindsay Seers, Every Thought There Ever Was, which explores the extraordinary brain functioning that occurs when someone has schizophrenia.
Since opening in 2012, 1.5 million visitors have come through the doors of the Mac, attending more than 3,000 live performances and 39 visual art exhibitions. In 2015, the venue was shortlisted for the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year prize, which was won by the Whitworth. Despite ongoing funding issues and teething problems with the building itself, the Mac’s ambition to be a world-class attraction is intact. For example, it supports a £20,000 prize for international artists, the largest such award in Northern Ireland.
Recently, ACNI has given the arts centre a vote of confidence, boosting its annual grant from £900,000 to £1.2m. The extra funding will allow the Mac to redouble its efforts to gain other sources of income, but Mulholland is firm in his belief that public sector support is vital for the arts, pointing out that 25% of the arts centre’s visitors come from outside Northern Ireland.
“If Belfast wants to sell itself as a cultural destination, it is going to have to support culture. There is no getting away from that.”
Hugh Mulholland at a glance
Hugh Mulholland has been in charge of visual arts at the Metropolitan Arts Centre since it opened in 2012.
He studied Fine Arts at Belfast College of Art and spent 18 months as an arts officer with the London Borough of Greenwich, before opening the Context gallery in Derry.
He was the director of the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast from 1997 to 2006. He opened the Third Space Gallery in Belfast in 2007 and curated the Northern Ireland pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and 2007. He was a member of the selection panel for the British pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale.
Earlier this year he brought Gilbert and George to the Mac, the first major presentation of the artists’ work in Northern Ireland since their exhibition at Ormeau Baths Gallery in 1999.
The Mac at a glance
The Metropolitan Arts Centre (Mac) in Belfast is a cultural hub that opened in 2012. Since opening, it has become a beacon for the ongoing regeneration of Belfast.
Open 363 days per year, the gallery runs a programme that includes visual art, theatre, dance, family workshops and more. Art exhibitions are free to all visitors.
Since 2012, 1.5 million visitors have come to the Mac. The gallery is run by 21 staff and a team of volunteers.
The Mac receives regular funding from the Arts Council Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, and the Department for Communities.
Patrick Kelly is a freelance writer.
The Museums Association Conference & Exhibition is in Belfast on 8-10 November.
