Artworks from the GTG Collection of Northern Ireland art published on Art UK
Artworks by some of Northern Ireland’s most important contemporary artists are now available to international audiences to view and explore on Art UK thanks to a new partnership with the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast.
Works from the Golden Thread Gallery Collection by artists including Jack Pakenham, Sharon Kelly, Clement McAleer, and Lisa Byrne join over one million artworks on the Art UK website.
Art UK is a vast, free, digital resource that shares work from 75,000 artists and 3,500 institutions, allowing the public to view almost every painting and sculpture in the UK’s national art collections.
Golden Thread Gallery Exhibitions Officer Mary Stevens has been working closely with the Art UK team to add works from the GTG Collection. She says,
“We’re so pleased to be partnering with Art UK to share the Golden Thread Gallery collection with online audiences across Northern Ireland and beyond. The Collection reflects the richness, diversity and creativity of the artists we have worked with over the past 25 years. By making the work available to view for free through Art UK, we can help more people discover these important artists and the stories behind the artworks.
For us, this partnership is about opening up the Golden Thread Gallery Collection to new audiences and celebrating the incredible artistic voices that have shaped Northern Ireland’s cultural landscape.”
View the 71 artworks from the Golden Thread Gallery Collection on Art UK here (with more to be added soon).
Works from the GTG Collection now on Art UK by (l-r) Gerry Gleason, Megan Doherty and Thomas Bevan
About Art UK
Art UK is a cultural education charity whose mission is to make the art in UK public collections accessible to everyone – for enjoyment, learning and research. Art UK digitises artworks, tells the stories behind the art and creates exciting opportunities for public interaction with art.
Thanks to its digital platform, the UK’s extraordinary collection of art in public ownership was enjoyed by 5.6 million users worldwide last year. Art UK plays a major role in supporting public art collections, by improving their accessibility and sustainability.
Project partners include the BBC, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Oxford University Press.
The GTG Collection of Northern Ireland Art
Golden Thread Gallery (GTG) is building a permanent Collection of Northern Irish contemporary art to preserve our visual history, and safeguard works of art that could otherwise be lost to the public. Some of the most powerful and important contemporary artworks made within and about Northern Ireland in the last five decades have been exhibited just a few times, and many have not been seen by the public in years. Others have been sold to private collections or removed from Northern Ireland entirely to museums and galleries abroad.
In 2019 we won funding from the Ampersand Foundation to acquire works to build our collection of Northern Irish art. Works are being catalogued, photographed and – for now – put safely and securely in storage. We’re working with key stakeholders to develop a permanent home for the Collection in Belfast, where it can be on display to the public and accessible to all.
Works in the collection fall under three main themes:
- Art made during “The Troubles” that reflected the conflict
- Art made during the period that spoke to wider discourse
- Art made post-Agreement
So far, the GTG Collection includes work by artists including Paul Seawright, Sinead O’Donnell, Jack Pakenham, Una Walker, Graham Gingles, Megan Doherty, John Rainey, Ursula Burke, Ian Charlesworth, Marie Barrett, Clement McAleer, Sandra Johnston, Bob Sloan, Lisa Byrne, Colin Darke, Miriam de Burca, Ciara Finnegan, Thomas Bevan, Moira McIvor and Brendan Jamison.
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