Dr Una Walker
Post-Doctoral Researcher at the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL), NCAD
walkeru@ncad.ie
Una’s main research interests include visual artists’ working environment, the historiography of cultural policy in Northern Ireland, and the use of databases as a cultural form. Her PhD, awarded in 2008, investigated the origins, policies, remit and finances of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) with particular emphasis on the visual arts. It was contextualised in relation to political imperatives within Northern Ireland, and external influences on cultural policy from Great Britain. She is currently a Post Doctoral Fellow engaged in a PRTLI funded digital archiving project in the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) which is based in NCAD. Recent publications include 'Ballrooms to barber shops: visual art venues in Northern Ireland in the latter half of the twentieth century' in Artefact, Issue 2, 2008, contributor to Arkive City, featuring an online database about archiving practices, University of Ulster, 2008, 'Art and Research Exchange and the Artists’ Collective of Northern Ireland – the early years' in Footnotes /Interface, 2007 and 'Notes and queries' in Irish Women Artists - 1800-2010: Familiar but Unknown, Four Courts Press, Dublin (forthcoming).