Minister Presents Gallery Chairman with Business2Arts Award

Carmel Naughton was chosen to receive the award specifically in recognition of her enormous contribution to the National Gallery Millennium Wing. Carmel was appointed to the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland in 1991 and in 1996 she was elected Chairman of the Board, the first woman to hold this position. She was re-elected for a further three year term in 1999 showing her fellow board members' recognition of her leadership through one of the more challenging periods of the Gallery's history.

Carmel's stewardship of Gallery Affairs, which began in 1996, coincided with the unveiling of the refurbished Beit wing in May of that year. This landmark achievement for the Gallery was followed within months by the announcement of the architectural competition for the design of the new Millennium Wing. Carmel therefore oversaw this immense project from its inauguration, through the complicated planning procedures to its final completion as the highly acclaimed and fantastic addition to the cultural life of Dublin of which we are all so proud.

But in the context of the Business2Arts award for Most Outstanding Contributor to the Arts, perhaps her most significant achievement was to raise almost a third of the required finance for this new national building from the corporate and private sector. The State, through the then Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, provided IR£7.5m from the European Regional Development Fund; the Exchequer generously added IR£8m but Carmel and her committee raised IR£6 million from corporate Ireland, one of the biggest fund raising programmes for a cultural institution in the country.

In addition to Carmel Naughton's commitment to the success of the Millennium Wing at the National Gallery, the Business2Arts award also recognises her wide enthusiasm for the arts and her encouragement of others in business to be involved - the specific criterion by which this award is judged. She has served on the Fine & Applied Arts Committee of the Ulster Museum and is now a member of the Board of Queen's University Art Gallery. She also was a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy's Gallagher Gallery Board, a past Chairman of Co-operation Ireland and Chairman until a few short weeks ago of the now very sadly defunct Irish Academy for the Performing Arts. Others to benefit from her commitment, include the Dublin Theatre Festival whose board she recently joined

Nominations for the 2002 award were submitted by the Business2Arts Patrons' Council and the judging panel comprised of:
- Mike Murphy (Chairman), Director of Harcourt Developments and former RTE presenter
- Bill Cunningham, Deputy Senior Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Roy Douglas, Chairman of Irish Life & Permanent
- Kevin Kelly, Former Chairman of Business2Arts and Former MD of AIB
- Jim McNaughton, Chairman of Business2Arts and TileStyle
- Brendan O'Mara, Chairman of Bruce Shaw Partnership

At the award dinner the Minister presented Carmel Naughton with a specially designed gold medal by Una de Blacam, which was kindly sponsored by Aer Rianta.

Siobhan Broughan, Business2Arts, Dublin, Ireland, Email: siobhan@business2arts.ie