Meet Our New Board Members

At The Douglas Hyde, our exceptional Board plays a vital role in shaping our vision and supporting our work with artists and audiences.

Patrick Prendergast, Board Chair states, “I would like to express my huge thanks to Willie Doherty, Helen Meany and Niamh O’Malley for their work on the Board of The Douglas Hyde over the last eight years. It’s been a privilege to work alongside them and their individual contributions have been immeasurable.”

He continues, “We have been overwhelmed by the interest in joining the Board of Directors of The Douglas Hyde and are delighted to welcome Sarah Glennie, Bassam Issa Al Sabah, Jennifer McElwain, and Eva Rothschild.

I look forward to working with them alongside current board members with exciting projects on the horizon including Ireland at Venice with Isabel Nolan in 2026″

Professor Sarah Glennie is Director of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. She is a distinguished leader in the arts in Ireland and internationally, working professionally in the cultural realm for twenty years, with extensive experience of directing and working in a number of public cultural institutions in both Ireland and Britain.

Prior to NCAD she was Director of The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2012-2015) and previously as Director of the Irish Film Institute (IFI) (2008-2012), where she oversaw a major redevelopment programme. At both organisations she developed new programmatic and organisational strategies that led to significant audience growth and greater financial sustainability. Among other roles, she was also Artistic Director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo (2005-2008),  Commissioner of Ireland’s participation in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 and Curator with the Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Project where she curated many other notable visual art projects, both in Ireland and internationally, including Romantic Detachment at PSI MOMA in 2004 and Stopover at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Her curatorial experience includes exhibitions and projects by Olafur Eliasson, Dorothy Cross, Paul McCarthy, Duncan Campbell, Jaki Irvine, Tacita Dean and Isabel Nolan amongst many others. In 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Bristol in recognition of her contribution to the arts.

Bassam Issa Al-Sabah is an artist working with digital animation, painting, sculpture and textiles. his installations interrogate the intersection of fantasy and trauma, employing speculative worlds as a lens through which to explore the mechanisms of memory and identity formation. Frequently drawing on the visual lexicon of video games, anime, and popular culture, constructing alternative realities that function as both a means of escape and critical commentary. These Surrealistic spaces are often juxtaposed with stark depictions of violence and destruction, their landscapes and fragmented narratives mirroring the dissonant nature of recollection and the complex processes of self-reconstruction.

Recent solo exhibitions include Uncensored Lilac, in collaboration with Jennifer Mehigan at Silent Green, Transmediale, Berlin (2024), IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE TAKE THIS!, The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin (2022), I AM ERROR, Gasworks, London (2021), and De La Warr Pavilion, Sussex (2022).

Jennifer McElwain is Professor of Botany in the School of Natural Sciences in the Discipline of Botany at Trinity College Dublin. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of the Royal Irish Academy. Professor McElwain leads an active research team interested in understanding how Earth’s atmosphere and plant life have changed and interacted over millions of years. This research serves as a baseline to inform current understanding of the science of climate change and biodiversity loss.

She established and Co-Directs the Environmental Science and Engineering Programme (TR064) at Trinity which integrates teaching in the natural sciences and engineering.  She is also the Director of Trinity College Botanic Garden, an historic college garden established in 1687. Professor McElwain is an award winning scientist, author and educator and regularly collaborates with artists.

Eva Rothschild was born in Dublin, Ireland, 1971 and currently lives and works in London. Rothschild studied BA Hons Fine Art at the University of Ulster, Belfast (1990–93), and has an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London (1997–99). Since 2014, Rothschild is an elected RA, Royal Academy of Arts, London and was made Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy schools in 2024.

Rothschild’s work has been the subject of institutional solo exhibitions including representing Ireland at the 58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, with ‘The Shrinking Universe’ (2019), ‘Kosmos’ at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2018), Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane (2014), Nasher Sculpture Center (2012), The Hepworth Wakefield (2011), South London Gallery (2007), and Kunsthalle Zürich (2004). Rothschild was awarded the 13th Robert Jacobsen Prize for sculpture 2019 among other awards spanning her career including Oslo Gardermoen Airport, Oslo, Norway, 2016 and Tate Britain Annual Duveens’ Commission, Tate Britain, London, 2009. In 2025 she was awarded an honorary fellowship for Innovative Art and Design Professionals from West Dean College.

Recent public commissions include The In Breath and The Out Breath, 2024 for the Sadler’s Wells East building, Stratford, London; Double Rainbow, 2022 for The Central Bank of Ireland, Dublin and My World and Your World, 2020 for The King’s Cross Project, London. Eva Rothschild’s works are held by major public collections including MoMA, New York, Arts Council of England, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Tate, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

1. Yuyan Wang, #16161D, 2025. Installation view, The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin. Photo: Louis Haugh.
2. Sarah Glennie. Photo: Matthew Thompson.
3. Digital render courtesy of Bassam Issa Al-Sabah.
4. Photograph courtesy of Jennifer McElwain.
5. Eva Rothschild. Photo: Anne Purkiss/RA.