Yeats Collection Exhibition Launch - 9th November

Invitation  |  Cuireadh

Yeats Collection Exhibition Launch

James Hardiman Library Special Collections

5pm Friday 9th November 2018

All are welcome to the reception and launch for NUI Galway's Yeats Collection Exhibition, 5pm Friday 9th November 2018 at James Hardiman Library's Special Collections Reading Room. 

NUI Galway is proud to confirm that recent acquisitions ensure valuable artifacts from the Yeats Collection remain in Ireland. Now newly on display at NUI Galway’s James Hardiman Library, this art and culture showcases the university's important holdings in visual arts, English and Irish literature, and drama. 

The exhibition highlights the vibrant art of the west. It draws attention to the work of women in renewing Ireland’s culture, and the early years of Ireland’s theatrical renaissance. 

In an exquisite drawing by Jack B. Yeats, the Roscommon poet and Irish-language playwright Douglas Hyde is shown acting with characteristic gusto, and Abbey pioneer William G. Fay shouts at the players in rehearsal. Alongside original woodcuts, Elizabeth Rivers' fabulous illustrations of island life for the very last Cuala Press book Stranger in Aran (1946) represent an extraordinary history of book production. Cuala Industries are also represented by fine art books and a unique banner handpainted by Elizabeth Corbett Yeats for publicity. The centenary of Robert Gregory's death is recalled through bookplates and unseen visionary landscapes as well as the poetry of W.B.Yeats. 
 
Following controversial sales in the UK and Ireland which made headlines around the world, the rescue of such important items for the nation and future generations in the west by NUI Galway is thus cause for celebration. Join us to celebrate the launch of an exhibition which runs until Christmas.