Programme Chair. MA Art and Environment

Artistic Research, Socially Engaged Arts, Art and Education, Environmental Art.

Glenn Loughran is an artist and educator at the School of Art and Design. He holds a BA in Painting, an MA in Sculpture, and a PhD in Education from the NCAD.

An innovator in art, education and social practice in Ireland, his research develops transversal modes of exchange between communities and contexts through artistic events. Key research areas focus on; socially engaged art, innovation in education, event-based research, community engagement and Island studies. Recent book publications include: What is an Island? Towards a Patchwork Pedagogy for a World Archipelago (2024. Create Press). Events of Art and Education in Post-Climate Times, with Prof. Carl Anders Säfström. (2025, Routledge). In 2025, he won a 'Highly Commended Award' at the coveted Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland for his work on the MA Art and Environment.

In January 2026, he will begin a year-long studio residency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) as part of the institution's Technologies of Peace research strand. In September 2025, he presented a large-scale solo show at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, titled Night Study. Spanning the years from 2008 – 2025, Night Study showcases a unique collection of artefacts gathered from over a decade of artistic enquiry and experimentation. The exhibition included a site-specific work developed for Uillinn titled: Night Study. Using a moveable light installation to navigate the gallery spaces in evening, when the art centre has closed, the Night Study installation explores the history and politics of study in an automatic society.  

He has exhibited internationally at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Helsinki Research Pavilion Venice Biennale, Medialab Prado, Madrid, the Dakar Biennale, Dakar, the Lithuania Biennale, Kaunas, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin and the NCAD Gallery. His research has been widely presented, including at the Creative Time Summit, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris, ELIA Biennale and published as book chapters by Routledge, Columbia University Press, and Sternberg Press.

In 2020 he set up the archipelagic MA Art and Environment delivered across the islands of West Cork and is current director of the programme.  He was Principal Investigator on the IRC Enterprise Partnership Scheme with Dr Grainne Coughlan, titled: A New Evaluative Register for Collaborative and Socially Engaged Arts (2021 –2024). Co-Pi on the FAST45 Art School Futures Labs 2045 (2021 –2024), Co-investigator on NesT: Networking Ecologically Smart Territories / H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (2021 – 24), Co-Investigator on RasL: Exploring Transdisciplinary Education combining Arts & Sciences / Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance. Co-Investigator , ReaLsMs (Real Smart Cities / Jan 2019 - Jan 2022) / 3-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action-funded research project conducted under the auspices of RISE (Research and Innovation Staff Exchange).  He is a member of the Working Group on Artistic Research at the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). He is currently supervising two PhDs, and has brought to completion three PhDs and one Post-doctoral Award in the areas of Artistic Research, Education and Socially Engaged Art.

2025 -  Book Publication / Events of Art and Education in Post-climate Times with Prof. Carl Anders Safström. (Routledge Environmental Sustainability Series).

2024 - Book Publication / What is an island? Towards a Patchwork Pedagogy for a World Archipelago. (Create Press).

2025 - Book Chapter / Educational Event-Based Practices in the World Archipelago: What is an Island? in Contested Narratives: Socially Engaged Art in Ireland. (Cork University Press).

2024 - Book Chapter / Message in a Bottle: On Archipelagic Thinking in Artistic Research in Challenging Institutionalisation. A propositional Toolkit for doing Supervision of Artistic and Practice-Based Research (Sternberg Press).

2024 - Book Chapter / Archipedagogy: Un-islanding Artistic Research and its Education, in Teaching Artistic Strategies: Playing with Materiality, Aesthetics and Ambiguity. (Bloomsbury Press)

2023 - Book Chapter / Environmental Education and the Technosphere  with O’ Connor, J. in TechneLogos and the (Neg)anthropocene: The first annual conference on the European Culture and Technology Lab. (EUt+ Academic Press).

2022 - Research Pamphlet /  Un-islanding Artistic Research (ELIA Working Group on Artistic Research, ELIA Online)

2021 - Book Chapter / Mode D: On Evental Modes of Exchange in Contemporary Art, in Performing Institutions. (Intellect Press).

2020 - Book Chapter / Contributory Research and Social (self) Sculpture, in Bifurquer (Les Liens Qui Liberent)

2020 - Book Chapter /  Evental Research: After the future…of Work in Aftermath: The Fall and Rise after the Event (Jagiellonian University Press).

2020 - Book Chapter / The Swerve in Leap into Action: Critical Performative Pedagogies in Art & Design Education (Peter Lang).

2020 -Book Chapter /  Archipelagic Imaginaries: A world-centred art education at the end of the world in Real Smart Cities. (Ethics & Politics).

2020- 2025 - Programme Director. MA Art and Environment. West Cork. TU Dublin

2015 - 2020- Programme Chair B.AV.A Dublin School of Creative Arts. TU Dublin

2015 - 2020 - Head of Artistic Research. GradCAM. TU Dublin

2008 - 2015 - Associate Researcher, Gradcam. TU Dublin

2016 - 2017 - Artist in Residence @ UCD/Parity Studios.

2016 - 2017 - CREATE. National Body for Collaborative Arts. Learning @ Development chair. 

2011- 15 - Assistant Lecturer: B.A.V.A.C.S and B.A.V.A DIT.

2011- 12 -  Assistant Lecturer. MA Art and the Contemporary World. NCAD

PhD SUPERVISION

2017 - 2020 / Successful Supervision of PhD in Socially Engaged Art. Co-supervisor with Dr. Tim Stott. Candidate: Dr Grainne Coughlan. 

• Analysing Organisation and Management of Participatory Art Projects in Contemporary Art Institutions. 

2018 – 2022 / Successful Supervision of PhD in Socially Engaged. Lead Supervisor with Prof. Noel Fitzpatrick. Candidate: Dr Fiona Woods. 

• A Laboratory of Common Interest: contesting the economisation of space in Limerick city through the practice of aesthetic work. 

2019 – 2025 / Supervision of PhD in Digital Sculpture and Process Art. Lead Supervisor with Prof. Noel Fitzpatrick. Candidate: Dr Alan Magee.

• Agency, Index & Process: Investigating the role of the artist’s body in digital sculpture production.

2023 - / Supervision of PhD in Participatory Action Research in the NesT project. Lead Supervisor with Prof. Noel Fitzpatrick. Candidate: Elvira Hojberg. 

• Contributory Research.  A Multi-sited Ethnographic Approach.

2024 - / Supervision of PhD in Museum Education in the TU Dublin ARISE project. Lead Supervisor with Dr Conor Mc Garrigle. Candidate: Sarah Ward

• Sites of Learning. Examining the educational potential of gallery contexts through practice-based research. 

POST-DOCTORAL SUPERVISION

2021 –2023 A New Evaluative Register for Collaborative And Socially Engaged Arts. IRC Enterprise Partnership Scheme. Dr Gráinne Coughlan.

• A New Evaluative Register for Collaborative And Socially Engaged Arts. IRC Enterprise Partnership Scheme.

2026 - 27 / Technologies of Peace. Studio-based Research Residency

• IMMA. Irish Museum of Modern Art. Dublin 8.

2025-Night Study. Solo Exhibition

• September - October. Uillinn.West Cork Arts Centre. Skibbereen. West Cork.

2024 – Virtual Worlds. Earth Rising Festival

• September. IMMA. Irish Museum of Modern Art. Dublin 8.

2022 – The Hedgeschoolproject. The Ignorant Art School

• Mar 19 – May 21. Hatton Gallery. Newcastle Upon Tyne.

2021- 22 – The Hedgeschoolproject. The Ignorant Art School

• Dec – Feb. Cooper Gallery. Dundee.

2021 - Para- Radio. Resort Residency.

• May – October. Portrane. Fingal County. Dublin 15

2019 – 20 - Contributory Other Peoples Practices Residency

• Jan 20 – August 21 Ushers Island. Dublin 8.

2020 - What is an Island? Digital Archipelago

• May – October. Cres Island / West Cork. Uillinn: West Cork Arts Center. Co. Cork.

2019 - What is an Island? Listening School.

• April – June. Galapagos Islands / West Cork. Uillinn: West Cork Arts Center. Co. Cork.

2018- What is an Island? Art and Archipelagic Thinking in the 21^st Century.

• June – August. West Cork. Uillinn: West Cork Arts Center. Co. Cork.

2018 - After the Future…of knowledge: GradCAM 10 Year Anniversary. February 6^th

• Dublin City Gallery. Hugh Lane Gallery. Dublin 1.

2018- After the Future…of Work. Medialab

• January – February. Plaza de las Letras. C/ Alameda, 15 28014 Madrid.

2017- After the Future…of Work. The Digital Aesthetic in the Utopia of Access.

• September - October. Helsinki Research Pavilion. Venice Biennale.

2016 – 2017  After the Future…of work

• January – December. UCD/Parity Studios/ Robert Emmet Community. Development Project. Dublin 8.