Draft:Ciarán Benson

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  • Comment: Close but not quite enough significant coverage or hits on Scholar. WikiOriginal-9 (talk) 00:41, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
  • Comment: This article does not read like an encyclopedia article, but rather a promotional piece. Also large amounts of it are unsourced, and what is sourced is almost entirely primary sources. Where is this information from? -- NotCharizard 🗨 15:42, 13 September 2023 (UTC)
  • Comment: This reads more like a resume or PR piece than an encyclopedia article - please read WP:NPOV. LittlePuppers (talk) 22:27, 10 September 2023 (UTC)


Ciarán Benson is an Irish academic, known for his role as Emeritus Professor of Psychology at University College Dublin (UCD) [1]. Born in Dun Laoghaire in 1950, he has been involved in research and leadership in the arts and society since the late 1970s [2].

Benson authored "The Place of the Arts in Irish Education" (1979), often referred to as 'The Benson Report.' This report has been influential in shaping aspects of the Irish Arts Council policy [3]. He served as the inaugural chairman of the Irish Film Institute from 1979 to 1984, a period during which he contributed to the development of its early goals [4][5].

His government appointment as chairman of the Irish Arts Council coincided with the establishment of the first Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in Ireland. President Michael D. Higgins has acknowledged Benson's earlier work in the arts and education in his ministerial policies [6]. When receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts, University College Dublin Arts Society, in November, 2013, President Higgins said: “When I became Minister for the Arts, in 1993, I had all that debate behind me. And I readily acknowledge the influence the Benson Report has had on the policies I sought to implement between 1993 and 1997. Indeed, as a Minister who also had responsibility for broadcasting, I had, for example, to consider where I stood on the choice of constituting my fellow citizens as market segments, or as citizens with rights within a communicative order. The choice was one between active citizenship within the cultural space or passive consumption of cultural products.”[7].

Benson’s approach to arts policy-making during his time at the Council was characterized by an evidence-based, cultural democratic methodology. The Irish Government accepted the Arts Council's first national Arts Plan 1995-1997, formulated by Benson, leading to an increase in government grant-aid to the Arts Council [8]. In his extensive, critical review of Benson’s Arts Council, the academic Pat Cooke said “Benson shared Little’s authentically democratising impulses and his vision of the arts’ potential to enrich the everyday lives of citizens was rooted in moral - philosophical principles“ (p. 613), and that “judging by the minutes for his years as chairman , the Arts Council got through an enormous amount of practical detailed work across all art forms” [9].

Benson’s academic work reflects this same interest in philosophically-informed, interdisciplinary inquiries into the relationships of ‘self’ and society. These range, for instance, from critiques of the misuse of ideas of ‘IQ’ in societal, or ethnic, comparisons [10] to Benson’s conception of ‘The No-Point-of-View Phenomenon’ in the work of the American artist James Turrell [11]

His book "The Cultural Psychology of Self: Place, Morality and Art in Human Worlds" (2001) was described by critic Fintan O’Toole as a significant philosophical work from Ireland [12]. Scholars Rom Harré and Jerome Bruner have also commented positively on its content and unique perspective [13].

In addition to his academic and policy work, Benson has curated art exhibitions, such as “In the Time of Shaking” in 2004 at the Irish Museum of Art, which supported Amnesty International and was opened by Yoko Ono [14][15].

Currently, Benson continues his involvement in the arts as chair of Poetry Ireland [16].

Personal life[edit]

In 1987, Benson suffered a spinal injury leading to Brown-Séquard syndrome, requiring him to undergo extensive rehabilitation [17] [18]. He was once married to artist Carmel Benson [17] and is currently married to artist Vivienne Roche.


References[edit]

  1. ^ "Adjunct, Emeritus & Visiting Staff - UCD School of Psychology". www.ucd.ie.
  2. ^ Ferriter, Diarmaid. (2013). Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s. (London, Profile Books), Chapter 24 “Artistic Creativity and Challenges,” 279-288.
  3. ^ Kennedy, Brian P. (1990). Dreams and Responsibilities: The State and the Arts in Independent Ireland. (Dublin, The Arts Council), 195-196.
  4. ^ "History".
  5. ^ "IFI Blog: Recollections from 1978 to 1984". 3 December 2012.
  6. ^ webmaster, Arts Council (December 7, 2014). "Publications". www.artscouncil.ie.
  7. ^ Ireland, Office of the President of. "Media Library | Speeches | President of Ireland". president.ie.
  8. ^ Benson, C. (1992) "Towards a Cultural Democracy", Studies, 81, 321, March.
  9. ^ Pat Cooke, (2021) The Politics and Polemics of Culture in Ireland, 1800–2010 (Routledge Studies in Cultural History), Routledge, p. 616
  10. ^ Jacoby, R. and Glauberman, N. Eds. (1995). The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions. (New York, Times Books).
  11. ^ Pellegrino, M., Glicksohn, J, Marson, F, Ferraiuolo, F, and Ben-Soussan, T-D., “Chapter 5 - The cloud of unknowing: Cognitive dedifferentiation in whole-body perceptual deprivation”, Progress In Brain Research, 277, 2023, 109-140, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.004
  12. ^ https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/2001/0217/Pg052.html#Ar05203
  13. ^ Benson, C. (2001). The Cultural Psychology of Self: Place, Morality and Art in Human Worlds. (London and New York, Routledge).
  14. ^ https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/2004/0413/Pg012.html#Ar01201
  15. ^ "Yoko Ono Artist". RTÉ Archives.
  16. ^ ttps://www.poetryireland.ie/
  17. ^ a b ’Snapshots: Carrie Crowley talks to Ciarán Benson’, Broadcast on Radio Telefís Éireann on 20 February 2005.
  18. ^ ‘Ciarán Benson’ in Marie Heaney, 'Sources: Letters from Irish People on Sustenance for the Soul', Dublin, Town House, 1999, 116-124.
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