An Irishman's Diary - A Corkman's Philanthropy

I have just written another Irishman's Diary article in the Irish Times. Read it here. It tells the story of a donation that Joseph Stafford Gibson made in 1919 to the Cork Municipal School of Art (now Crawford Art Gallery). Through Gibson's kind bequest, the gallery was able to acquire many fine works of art, including paintings, drawings, sketches and sculpture by Irish as well as other artists.

The bequest also allowed students to travel abroad to add to their knowledge and understanding of art. Over the years, artists such as Kathleen Murphy-O'Connor (Paris 1924), Seamus Murphy (Paris 1931/2), John O'Leary (Paris 1957) and Pat Murray (Bayreuth 1966)  were awarded a Gibson Bequest Scholarship that enabled them to travel to Europe to hone their artistic skills. Link to a web page about the Gibson Bequest on the Crawford Gallery's website.

Photograph of the Crawford Art Gallery

These days, the most prominent collection on display in the gallery is the AIB Art Collection. It's an amazing tour de force of some of the best artists produced in Ireland in recent times including Mainie Jellett, Mary Swanzy, Jack B. Yeats, Sean Keating, Harry Kernoff, Paul and Grace Henry, Colin Middleton, Roderic O'Conor, Aloysius O'Kelly and John Lavery. In other words - well worth a visit...

Photograph of plaque on side of display cabinet housing items donated to the Crawford Art Gallery by Joseph Stafford Gibson.

Bequests and donations are very important to galleries and museums as they provide a fresh source of funds to keep them relevant and competitive. In the National Gallery of Ireland for example, there are several important bequests that have helped the gallery acquire art works. The Shaw Fund (George Bernard Shaw), the Lane Fund (Sir Hugh Lane) and the Vaughan Bequest (Henry Vaughan [Turner watercolours]). Link here to the gallery's web page on bequests. More information here on bequests from Apollo Magazine.