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Personal Profile
Aidan Walsh left the Northern Ireland Museums Council in March 2001, having
served as Director since 1993. Previously the first Curator of the pioneering
Monaghan County Museum in the Republic of Ireland, he developed an art gallery
and policy for art alongside a regional museum of history, archaeology and
traditional life.
He moved to Northern Ireland in 1990 as Museums Development Officer for
Northern Ireland. He was first tasked with reviewing regional museum provision
and reporting to government on the potential of a proposed Museums Council.
Following establishment of the Council, he became its Director in 1993 and
served there until leaving to establish his own consultancy in 2001. He is now
an independent consultant, based in Ireland, but working in the cultural sector
throughout Ireland and the UK.
An archaeologist by training, he qualified from National University of
Ireland Galway (NUIG) in 1970 and was also conferred FMA by UK colleagues in
1998, (Fellow of the Museums Association). In 1983 he directed an archaeological
excavation at the celebrated Iron Age earthwork, the "Black Pig's Dyke" in
County Monaghan.
Within the museum profession, Aidan Walsh served twice as Chairman of
ICOM-Ireland (International Council of Museums) and once as Chair of ICOM-UK. He
also chaired the Irish Museums Association and represented Northern Ireland on
the Council of the Museums Association. He was appointed on several occasions to
the board of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.
Throughout his career, Aidan Walsh has also broadened his knowledge of the
cultural sector. He served on the Northern Ireland Library & Information
Services Council, Belfast from 1997-1999. He also twice chaired the County
Monaghan Arts Festival Committee and served also on the former Cultural
Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin. He currently
sits on the Company of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre for Artists, an artist’s
retreat funded by the two Arts Councils in Ireland.
Knowledge
Aidan Walsh has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to the cultural sector and
its development. His working experience and knowledge ranges from the local,
through regional, national and international arenas and across a wide spectrum
of issues and functions.
He has worked for the library and arts domains within the cultural sector and
contributed to forging positive relationship between the cultural and tourism
sectors. He has also sat on many cultural boards and committees within museums,
libraries and the arts and is thoroughly familiar with organizational working
culture in both the professional and voluntary areas.
Skills
Aidan Walsh combines an in-depth and career-long working knowledge of cultural
facilities and their management with hands-on experience of development and
feasibility studies, facilitation, strategic planning, assessment, analysis,
advocacy and review.
As an independent consultant, he works increasingly with the public library
sector, mainly in the areas of development planning and review.
Aidan Walsh
speaks English as his mother tongue. He is also proficient in conversational
Irish and French.
A European and
International Dimension
International work has been a notable feature of Aidan Walsh’s career. In 1980,
as Curator of Monaghan County Museum, Ireland, he was awarded the Council of
Europe Museum Prize. In 1989 he was invited to sat on the Brussels-based EU
Committee for Cultural Heritage.
In 1997 he was also invited by the Council of Europe to join a team of experts,
which reviewed the Cultural Policy of Lithuania. From 1999-2001 he sat on the
Reform Task Force of ICOM, the UNESCO non-governmental organisation, based in
Paris. The RTF undertook a root-and-branch review, which lead to significant
strategic change within ICOM (International Council of Museums).
He currently
sits on the Executive of INTERCOM, the International Committee for Management in
Museums.
Click Here to View the Career Summary of Aidan
Walsh
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