Eugene Downes, moderator (Arts and Identity, Session V) at FAST FORWARD: Imagining the Future, ISPA's 62nd Annual Congress, in New York City on January 12-14, 2010.  View the full Schedule of Events.

Eugene Downes

Eugene Downes was appointed in May 2007 as the first Chief Executive of Culture Ireland, the national agency for the promotion and advancement of Irish arts worldwide.  From 2000-07 he acted as a consultant to the Irish Departments of Foreign Affairs and Arts and the Offices of the President and Prime Minister on international arts programming and strategy, curating and producing arts events across Europe, Asia and South America.  In 2004 he produced a gala concert in Dublin to celebrate EU Enlargement Day in the presence of the European Heads of Government, in 2003-04 conducted an international arts strategy review for the Government and in 2005-06 advised Culture Ireland on the development of their first strategic plan.

Previous experience included the Irish Foreign Service, a spell as Cultural Attaché in Russia and as a broadcaster on Irish national public radio, anchoring a weekly music review programme, feature series on opera, and the broadcasts of the first Irish performances of Wagner’s Ring in nearly a century.  Eugene has served as a Board member of cultural institutions including the Abbey Theatre, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Irish Theatre Institute and the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris.