Seán Larkin (born 1949) is an Irish art curator and art educationist. Having held senior posts at several Irish art institutions, including director of the Dún Laoghaire School of Art and Design, Larkin has worked extensively in

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

and his native

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Early life and education

Seán Larkin was born in 1949 in

. He is the son of Anne Larkin (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

O'Neill) and Diarmuid Larkin, an Irish artist and art educationist in whose footsteps Seán followed. Larkin, Diarmuid
on

Dictionary of Irish Biography The ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' (DIB) is a biographical dictionary of notable Irish people and people not born in the country who had notable careers in Ireland, including both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. History The ...

He was educated at the

National College of Art and Design The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of t ...

in Dublin, where he graduated in 1973.

Career

Larkin begin his career at a senior management level in 1978. He represented the

Institutes of technology in the Republic of Ireland An Institute of Technology (IT) is a type of higher education college found in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2018, there were a total of fourteen colleges that use the title of Institute of Technology, which were created from the late 1960s an ...

as Chair of the Working Group on Practice-based Research in the Arts (an advisory group established by the

Higher Education and Training Awards Council The Higher Education and Training Awards Council () (HETAC), the legal successor to the ''National Council for Educational Awards'' (NCEA), granted higher education awards in Ireland beyond the university system from 2001 to 2012. HETAC was crea ...

(HETAC) and the

Irish Universities Quality Board The Irish Universities Quality Board (IUQB) was established in 2002. The purpose of the board, which operated from 2002 to 2012, was to promote quality assurance at Irish universities including via institutional quality reviews, whilst the board ...

). Also for the HETAC, he was an external examiner and assessor in Fine Art on a variety of assessment and programme validation panels. From 1998 to 2004, Larkin was head of the Department of Art and Design at the

Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (), more commonly known as IADT Dún Laoghaire or simply IADT is an institute of technology with a focus on art and design located in Deansgrange near Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. It was esta ...

(IADT), where he explored

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

. Previous to this post, he was head of the Department of Humanities at the Atlantic Technological University Sligo. At the same time, he was the

HETAC The Higher Education and Training Awards Council () (HETAC), the legal successor to the ''National Council for Educational Awards'' (NCEA), granted higher education awards in Ireland beyond the university system from 2001 to 2012. HETAC was crea ...

nominee on the Council for Curriculum and Assessment, and worked with public and private collections, including the Arts Council Collection, Ireland. Larkin was head of the School of Creative Arts at the IADT from 2005 to 2012. He joined The Model, Sligo in 2016, later describing his time there "as a catalyst for continuing creative inquiry, creative practice and related research loosely based on cultural signposts." He has also held exhibitions for the Hamilton Gallery in

. Larkin is currently chairman of the Sligo International Choral Festival. He joined the board in 2012 and "moved quickly through the ranks." For World Homeless Day 2016, Larkin invited the High Hopes Choir, Ireland's first homeless choir, to join the festival in Sligo. In 2020, Larkin selected the work for ''Water'', an online exhibition with ArtNetdlr, The Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown Artist Network.Water
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larkin, Seán Living people 1949 births Artists from Dublin (city) 20th-century Irish male artists 21st-century Irish male artists Irish male painters Irish modern painters Irish abstract painters Expressionist painters Abstract expressionist artists Irish art educators European art curators Alumni of the National College of Art and Design 20th-century Irish painters 21st-century Irish painters