Ella Sloane wins the National Gallery of Ireland Sarah Cecilia Harrison Essay Prize
Ella Sloane has won the Sarah Cecilia Harrison Essay Prize, which celebrates Harrison’s legacy in the arts and as a social campaigner. The award recognises the best new research and writing that highlight the stories of women and Ireland’s visual culture, encompassing fine art, design, and craft.
The National Gallery of Ireland announced Ella Sloane as the winner for her essay The education of the work-girls: Evaluating Dún Emer’s educational objective through the literary and visual material of Leabhar Dún Éimire. The two runners up for 2024 were Lian Bell with her essay, Doubles—A New Archive and Anne Marie Saliba, with Gifford’s Grace—A life in Pen. Grace Evelyn Gifford (1888-1955): Ireland’s Finest Cartoonist.
The central role played by women artists in the development and dissemination of modernist art in Ireland is well documented, however the broader story of women artists and their achievements has often been forgotten or been viewed as ancillary to the standard canon. Archives and primary research are essential to understanding and revealing these stories. Through the development of the Gallery’s collections, engagement and learning programmes, the Gallery’s Library and Archives, in particular the Centre for the Study of Irish Art (CSIA), work to promote Irish women artists as well as female led collectives and industries.
It is a platform for new writing that will elevate the stories of women whose creativity has shaped, and continues to shape, the vibrant artistic landscape of Ireland
Archivist at the National Gallery of Ireland Leah Benson said that they were delighted with the level of interest in the essay prize. “The standard was extremely high and the submissions were wonderful to read. We are so pleased to be in a position to promote this area of study and to see the use of archives and research collections in the telling of new stories in different ways.”
Ella Sloane graduated with a BA in English Literature and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin. She has since started writing for the Irish Times as part of the newspaper’s journalist graduate programme where she primarily writes features relating to arts, culture and lifestyle issues.
For her final-year thesis, Ella chose Trinity’s School of English’s Open Collections pathway, a non-traditional dissertation option that allowed her to engage in an archival research project. This essay is the result of her work. Fascinated by Ireland’s material history she combined her love of literary and visual arts in this project, transforming it into something more than a dissertation. Ella hopes to continue exploring different aspects of Leabhar Dún Éimire to uncover the lives of the craft enterprise’s largely forgotten work-girls, building on the work of Trinity’s Cuala Press Project.
Director of the National Gallery Caroline Campbell said that the essay prize is a celebration of fresh perspectives and new voices, shining a well-deserved spotlight on the contributions of women in the visual arts in Ireland.
“It is a platform for new writing that will elevate the stories of women whose creativity has shaped, and continues to shape, the vibrant artistic landscape of Ireland. I would like to congratulate the winner, Ella Sloane, and the runners up, Lian Bell and Anne Marie Saliba, as well as acknowledge and thank all who entered the competition this year.”
The prize is generously supported by the descendants of the sister of Sarah Cecilia Harrison, Beatrice Chisholm.
