Photo Museum Ireland Board of Trustees

There are currently eight Board Directors, each with expertise in a variety of professional fields. Board members may serve for not more than two 3-year terms and are replaced on rotation.

William Fagan

Appointed Chair January 2022. William is a retired public servant, photographer and photographic historian. In his public service career William served in the Departments of Labour, Finance and the Public Service. He was involved in the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman where he became Director in 1987. He subsequently served as Director of Consumer Affairs for 8 years. In 1998 William joined the private sector where he became Director of Regulatory Affairs and Communications at Chorus Communications where he was involved in the introduction of broadband and digital TV into Ireland. He served on the board of ICT Ireland, a digital industry body established by IBEC. In 2006 William went to work for the Government of Qatar where he established a telecoms regulator which liberalised the Qatari telecoms market. William has worked as a consultant specialising in the areas of broadband and regulatory training. He is a member of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), the Dublin Camera Club, the Leica Society (UK), the LHSA – the International Leica Society (US) and the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain (PCCGB). He has written articles on photography, photographic equipment and photographic history for magazines in the UK, US and Ireland and is currently researching the history of photography in Ireland from 1840 to the present. Joined Board August 2019.

Stephanie McBride

Stephanie McBride is an academic, broadcaster and critic who writes and lectures on film, media and visual culture. Formerly Assistant Professor in the School of Communications at DCU, Tutor in arts, literature and film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she has also taught in Visual Culture at NCAD. Selected publications include The Cinema of Place/The Place of Cinema, Ireland into Film:Felicia’s Journey. Her Intermedia column appeared in The Irish Times; a film and tv columnist with CIRCA Art Magazine, where she also edited a number of issues on film, art education, art and science; a contributor to Irish Arts Review. Joined Board October 2018.

Luke Gibbons

Luke Gibbons, is Professor of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies at the School of English, Drama and Media Studies, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and formerly taught at the University of Notre Dame, USA, and Dublin City University. He has published widely on Irish culture, film, literature, and the visual arts, as well as on aesthetics and politics. His many publications include ‘Ghostly Light: Spectres of Modernity in James Joyce’s and John Huston’s ‘The Dead’, in A Companion to James Joyce, (Richard Brown, ed., Blackwell, 2007) and ‘Famished Ghosts: Bloom, Bible Wars, and “U.P. up” in Joyce’s Dublin’, Dublin James Joyce Journal, 2 (2010). Joined Board September 2018.

Audrey Brennan

Audrey Brennan has many years of experience working at a senior level in the areas of fundraising and media relations for several arts organisations, including the Royal Hibernian Academy, The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin Contemporary 2011 and The Hennessy Literary Awards. From 2009 to 2014, she was a member of the board of Circa Art Magazine. In 2015, she was awarded a Master’s in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship by Trinity College Dublin. Her studies included extensive research into revenue generation by commercial enterprises within art galleries. She also works as an art advisor to private collectors. Joined the board in September 2019.

Tom Burke

Tom Burke has been making film and video projects of varying scales and styles for over a decade. Working primarily in the documentary form, he often assumes a shooting director role, and more often than not will be the editor of his own films. At Areaman Productions from 2007 to 2017, Tom was able to mix factual television projects with more aesthetically driven Irish Film Board funded short-form docs. In 2017, he established Broadstone Films in order to pursue his feature documentary and fiction project ambitions. Joined the Board in January 2020.

Orla Fitzpatrick

Orla is a photographic historian from Dublin, Ireland. Her PhD from Ulster University was on the topic of ‘Modernism, modernity and the Irish photographic book, 1922-1949.’ Publications include articles on Irish photographic history and material culture for publications such as ‘Éire-Ireland’ and ‘Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies’. She has also curated several photographic exhibitions and produced a photographic monograph for the National Library of Ireland. Her acclaimed blog www.jacolette.com covers vernacular Irish photography. She is a regular contributor to ‘Source: Photographic Review.’ She has worked in the area of librarianship since 1994. Joined the board in January 2020.

Dragana Jurišić

Dragana Jurišić is one of Ireland’s leading visual artists. She was born in Slavonski Brod, Croatia (then Yugoslavia), but now lives and works in Dublin. She received an MFA in Documentary Photography from the University of Wales in 2008 and a PhD from the European Centre for Photographic Research in 2013. She is a Visiting Fellow at the University of South Wales until 2021. Jurišić makes deeply personal work exploring the power photography has over memory. Her work has been shown extensively in Ireland and abroad and has won numerous awards. Joined the board in April 2022.

Claire Feely

Claire Feely is an expert in consumer lifestyle PR, social media, influencer marketing and event management and a member of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland. She has extensive experience developing on and offline campaigns for global brands in the arts and culture, consumer product, and lifestyle product sectors, as well as amplifying global brand platforms for the Irish market. She is the Director of Client Services and a Board Member of Elevate PR - one of Ireland´s leading consumer and lifestyle Public Relations, Social Media, and Event companies. Her Arts and culture experience includes: Working with some of Ireland’s leading institutions including the National Gallery of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hibernian Academy, and Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane; Claire developed cultural platforms for brands, along with consumer PR campaigns for clients including Gormley’s Fine Art, VUE Art Fair, Bloomsday, the Galway Film Fleadh and GAZE Film Festival; Development and promotion of a cultural platform for Hennessy in Ireland including the Hennessy Portrait Prize with the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hennessy Literary Awards, and the Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA. Annual campaigns to drive awareness of, and footfall to, the Galway Film Fleadh. She previously worked for Dublin Contemporary.

Mark Fielding

Mark Fielding has spent his working life in the private business sector as owner, manager, mentor, advisor and advocate. He has worked in the printing, food processing, biotech, recruitment, accountancy and property sectors, in the UK, France and Ireland. He has assisted in the start-up and management of more than 500 enterprises. He was a senior partner in a chartered accountancy and management consultancy firm specialising in SMEs for 20 years (1980s/90s). From 2000 to 2018 he was CEO of ISME the Irish SME Association. He was Educated at the Christian Brothers Schools, UCD, Chartered Accountants Ireland and the Irish Tax Institute. Mark has served on numerous European and Irish governmental advisory bodies, including the Company Law Review Group, the high-level group on Business Regulation, the Retail Consultation Forum, SME Procurement advisory body and the Advisory Group on Small Business. He also sat on the administrative council of SME United (UEAPME), the European body for SMEs, representing over 12 million enterprises with more than 55 million employees. Mark currently is an advisor on strategy, finance and corporate governance and joined the board in April 2023.