Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland, has elected eight new members, including Gary Coyle, John Gibbons and Louis Stewart from the visual arts. The Arts Council of Ireland established Aosdána in 1981 to honour artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland, and to help them to devote their energies fully to their art. Membership of the organisation, which is by peer nomination and election, is limited to 250 living artists either born in Ireland or resident for at least five years. Members who reside in Ireland may be eligible, subject to an income threshold, to receive the ‘cnuas’ from the Arts Council – an annuity for a term of five years – to enable them to concentrate full-time on their art.
