Take a Closer Look: Online Art Appreciation Courses 2025

Take part in these very special online courses – wherever you are.

***Exclusive early bird sale for Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland from 18 November***

Scheduled for Winter, Spring and Autumn 2025, these 8-week art appreciation evening courses are the perfect way to learn more about art. Discover little-known works from the Gallery’s collection, get to know old favourites in more depth, and explore other great collections of the world with our expert Art Historians and guest speakers.  Each course will take place online using Zoom webinar and will include time for a question and answer session where you can put your questions and comments to the facilitators. 
All sessions are recorded and made available to participants for three weeks afterwards to allow you to catch up, or watch again.

Each course has a 1 week break in the middle. See exact dates below.

Winter 2025:

The Art of Antiques with Adrian le Harivel 

Tuesdays, 18.00-19.15
14 January to 11 March 
(14, 21, 28 Jan, 4, 11, 25 Feb, 4, 11 Mar – note there is a break on 18 Feb.)

Tickets available online from 2 December.

• Tickets: €150
• 20% discount for Friends of the Gallery
• 10% discount Over 65’s/unwaged/students
• Special offer until 13 January 2025: Further 10% discount when all three courses booked together.

Buying this course as a gift? 

Once you have purchased the ticket, contact [email protected] to confirm the name of the recipient, and we will ensure they are sent all correspondence. If you would like us to send them an e-mail confirming that this was purchased as a gift for them, we can also do this.

About the course: 

This art appreciation course will explore great examples of the decorative arts over two centuries, with the Gallery’s Milltown Collection from Russborough House and paintings, from many sources, as a thread. There will be special emphasis on the Irish contribution. Themes will give snapshots of different periods to enhance understanding and enjoyment where artistry, important makers and pointers of quality will all be examined. It will be a useful update for those who are already enthusiasts and introduction, for others, to wide range of material, where even the modest collector can own their own historic examples and experience the pleasure of seeing and handling them close to hand.  

About the tutor:

Adrian Le Harivel is the former Curator of British Art at the National Gallery of Ireland. He has long researched in this field and led antiques trails of the Gallery's collection. He was a Curator at the Gallery for forty-two years, under four Directors, working on the basic summary catalogues, exhibitions and setting up the Prints and Drawings department, and was at times responsible for the Continental and Irish collections. He worked with the Gallery’s Head Curator on the non-Irish display for the 2017 complete rehang of the collection as well as curating the new hang of his own collections in the Grand Gallery and lower Dargan rooms. Adrian has also led many tours through historic Dublin and to various country houses. He has a deep interest in art and music and is currently Emeritus Curator of Visual Art at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

 

Spring 2025:

The Meaning of Myths: Classical Stories in Western Art with Dr Sarah Wilson 

Tuesdays, 18.00-19.15
25 March to 20 May 
(25 Mar, 1, 8, 15, 29 Apr, 6, 13, 20 May – note there is a break on 22 April)

Tickets available online from 2 December.

• Tickets: €150
• 20% discount for Friends of the Gallery
• 10% discount Over 65’s/unwaged/students
• Special offer until 13 January 2025: Further 10% discount when all three courses booked together.

Buying this course as a gift? 

Once you have purchased the ticket, contact [email protected] to confirm the name of the recipient, and we will ensure they are sent all correspondence. If you would like us to send them an e-mail confirming that this was purchased as a gift for them, we can also do this.

About the course: 

For thousands of years, Greek and Roman myths have been instrumental in shaping Western art. These stories, centred on anthropomorphic gods and larger-than-life mortals, have functioned as a societal language. They provided generations of artists, from Benvenuto Cellini to Jacques-Louis David and Gustav Klimt, with a shared vocabulary. Myths continue to captivate us with tales of adventure, magic, tragedy and romance, yet at their core, they express elements of universal experience, moral guidelines, and admonishments.

This eight-week art appreciation course will examine some of the most enduring Classical myths in Western art, including representations of Daedalus and his ill-fated son Icarus, the untouchable Danaë, and the terrifying yet intriguing figures of Medusa and Circe the Sorceress. Taking inspiration from key works in the National Gallery, we will explore the diverse forms and visual metamorphoses of mythic iconography from antiquity to the twentieth century.

About the tutor:

Dr Sarah Wilson is an art historian specializing in Roman antiquity and religious identity. She has an undergraduate degree in Fine Art (DIT) and completed her postgraduate studies in Art History (UCD). She has developed several lecture series for the National Gallery of Ireland that encompass a broad range of topics from Classical influences to Japanese and Aboriginal art.

Autumn 2025:

For the love of Modernism: Ireland’s relationship with Modern Art from the 1920s to 1980s with Jessica Fahy

Tuesdays, 18.00-19.15
7 October to 2 December
7, 14, 21 Oct, 4, 11, 18, 25 Nov and 2 Dec (note there is a break on 28 October)

Tickets available online from 2 December.

• Tickets: €150
• 20% discount for Friends of the Gallery
• 10% discount Over 65’s/unwaged/students
• Special offer until 13 January 2025: Further 10% discount when all three courses booked together.

Buying this course as a gift? 

Once you have purchased the ticket, contact [email protected] to confirm the name of the recipient, and we will ensure they are sent all correspondence. If you would like us to send them an e-mail confirming that this was purchased as a gift for them, we can also do this.

About the course: 

The art appreciation course will examine the relationship between the Irish state and the advent of Modernism in the visual arts. It can certainly be described as a difficult adjustment with a reluctance by the Irish state and the art institutions to support Modernist artists. 
In the first few decades of the Free State and Irish Republic many artworks were see as unaccomplished or even corrupting due to the rejection of the Academic style by the artist. The ideas around ‘proper’ art were not just about expected levels of skill in naturalism or realism but also moralistic. It would seem that the Irish public were not trusted to make up their own minds or to be able to understand or be confronted with this new art. Yet on an international stage, it was often the most avant-garde artist chosen to represent Ireland - arguably as this new nation wanted to be seen as a modern and progressive country. 
The first Rosc exhibition in 1967 brought works by the most important artists from around the world to Dublin, and included ancient Irish artworks, but no contemporary Irish Artists. Living artists were eventually included, which was followed by a boom in state-funded commissions, which were not always well received by the public - an opinion still heard today.

About the tutor:

Jessica Fahy is a freelance Art Historian. She is on the lecturer and guide panels for the National Gallery of Ireland, UCD Access and Lifelong Learning Centre and the Hugh Lane Gallery. She gives talks and tours across Ireland, abroad and online on all areas of Western Art from the 14th century to the present day.  She is a regular contributor on RTÉ radio for Arena. She has a MLitt in Art History from UCD where she also received her undergraduate degree with English as her joint major. She completed her MA in Italian Renaissance Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2007.