Take a Closer Look: Online Art Appreciation Courses 2025

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

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.

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 now.

• 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.