Signal Board & Trustees

Eleanor Philips

Creative Director

Eleanor’s role as Director is primarily concerned with the objectives of the centre’s mission; engagement and development of Signal’s members and the creative and artistic direction of the Centre.

She has worked as a professional artist, curator and arts administrator for over 30 years. She holds a BA Fine Art, H.Dip Community Arts Education from NCAD, and an MA Art in Public from Ulster University. She was a founding member of the Signal Arts Centre working alongside James Morrison on the operational and legal set-up of the centre.

She has been commissioned and supported by Arts Council Ireland; CREATE; Wicklow County Council; Craigavon County Council; Bray Urban District Council; PEACE III Arts and Diversity Fund, Northern Ireland; Regional Arts Council St. Louis, USA and City Council Celje, Slovenia.

Emma Finucane

Chairperson

Trustee Role – Chair
Sub-Committee – Community Employment Management Committee

A founding member of Outpost Studios in Bray Co. Wicklow. Emma completed a BFA at NCAD in 1997 and MFA in 2006. She has been commissioned and supported by Creative Ireland, Arts Council Ireland, CREATE, Wicklow, Carlow, Cavan and Kildare County Councils.

Her work has been shown in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Denmark and the US and is in private and public collections including: OPW, AIB, DIT, and UCD. She currently lectures in UCD & NCAD.
http://emmafinucane.weebly.com/
http://otherpeoplespractices.com
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/case-studies/the-creative-well-phase-ii/

Susie Markey

Treasurer

Trustee Role – Treasurer
Sub-Committee – Community Employment Management Committee

Susie is an experienced Audit Manager with experience working with one of Ireland’s leading financial institutions. During her career she has also held a number of operations management positions. She has extensive experience in overseeing internal operating controls, processes and practices and holds a professional designation awarded by the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland.

Greg Murray

Personal Development Officer

.Trustee Role – Community Employment Personal Development Officer

 

Sara Hanley

Company Secretary

Trustee Role – Company Secretary
Sub-Committee – Community Employment Management Committee

Sara completed her BA (Hons) in Visual Arts Practice from IADT as a mature student in 2011. That year she was the recipient of the R.C. Lewis-Crosby Award for Painting at the RDS Student Art Awards. She then went on to study a Postgraduate Diploma (level 9) in Business in Cultural Event Management graduating in 2012 from IADT.

Since then Sara has worked in arts administration roles ranging from working with a Dublin art gallery and also for a cultural event management company specialising in the provision of high calibre arts programmes and events for schools, community groups, local authorities, government bodies, and festivals both in Ireland and internationally. Sara was one of the founding members of ArtNetdlr (Artist Network Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown) and served as Secretary on the committee for several years.

Since the Covid 19 Pandemic, Sara has renewed an interest in photography and is attending workshops and courses in all aspects of photography plus post production using Adobe Lightroom.

Maria Ginnity

Maria is a visual artist based in Dublin. She graduated with a CPD Diploma, RHA School of Art in 2022. Maria exhibited in the RHA and the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club Annual exhibitions in 2003, with ArtNetdlr, Dunamaise Arts Centre and Gallery 6. She hosted her first solo exhibition in June 2023.
Previously, Maria worked in the private and public sector in a career that spanned leadership roles in finance, governance, strategy, policy development and communications. She worked with Emdee Holdings, IDA Ireland, Forfás and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and has an in-depth experience of policy making and influencing within Government.
Maria is the Student Representative at the RHA School Advisory Board and was a member of ArcLabs, Waterford for over 5 years until recently.

Yvonne Pettitt

Sub-Committee – Signal Arts Society Committee

Yvonne Pettitt is an Irish artist, she holds a B.A and M.Phil. in Art History and a Higher Diploma in Arts Administration. She lectured extensively as part of the Education Programme for the Hugh Lane Gallery and tutored for the Art History Department in UCD. Painting has always been her passion, she completed the CPD Diploma with the RHA School in 2020. She had a piece exhibited in the RHA Annual in 2020 and has exhibited in group shows in the Lexicon Gallery, Dun Laoghaire Library, with the Signal Art Gallery and ArtNetdlr.

Jean Ryan

Trustee 
Sub-Committee – Signal Arts Society Committee

My work involves research that is focused on the creative process an individual artist undertakes when making artwork. This research has led me into unexpected and surprising areas of art history, art theory, philosophy, history, and science as I endeavor to understand the complexity of the creative thinking involved in making art.

The aim of my gallery talks is to bring the listener into this creative process to understand an artist and their artworks more fully. It has been my pleasure to reveal the research, curiosity, the experimentation artists undertake when developing an idea and their art practice.

Individual artists have been very generous with information that helps my understanding of this
fascinating area.