In her role at the Gallery, Sinéad ensures responsive, equitable, and inclusive opportunities are created for diverse audiences, and is committed to addressing barriers to the arts, exploring the pivotal role they may play not only in artistic, but also social and civic life.
At NEMO’s European Museum Conference 2025, Sinéad Rice will join the panel “Collective Care: Museums, communities, and the practice of wellbeing” on Monday, 27 October.
Presentation abstract:
Who cares? We do: The National Gallery of Ireland’s journey towards collective care
This impulse session traces the National Gallery of Ireland’s evolving civic role through co-created, collaborative programmes developed in direct response to contemporary societal needs.
Moving beyond traditional outreach models, the Gallery has cultivated a practice grounded in dialogue, trust-building, and sustained partnership with marginalised and vulnerable communities historically excluded from cultural participation. Rather than implementing pre-designed solutions, these initiatives have emerged through shared authorship and mutual learning, influencing not only the shape of individual projects, but also institutional culture more broadly.
This approach reflects a gradual yet significant shift: from understanding care as a programme offering to embedding it as a structural and ethical value within the organisation.
This short, focused presentation will highlight a selection of key initiatives along this trajectory, culminating in No Words, the Gallery’s flagship programme in Cultural Art Psychotherapy developed through years of collaborative practice. No Words exemplifies how a national cultural institution can meaningfully engage with collective wellbeing as a core civic responsibility offering a compelling model for museums to reimagine care as a collaborative, transformative practice, with the potential to drive positive systemic change.
