As the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) prepares to expand its premises, David Caron explores the stained glass collections in the archive
NIVAL is increasing its accommodation on NCAD’s Thomas Street campus, reflecting the exponential growth of this significant archive, which was founded by the college’s head librarian, Edward Murphy, in 1997. In addition to maintaining comprehensive files on individual artists, designers, craftspeople, galleries and organisations of the 20th and 21st centuries, NIVAL has been the recipient of many discrete collections donated by artists, designers and their descendants. One area in which NIVAL has developed a particularly strong holding is stained glass, that medium in which Irish visual artists singularly excelled during the last century. NIVAL’s first acquisition in this area, the year it was founded, was the private library and related ephemera belonging to Evie Hone.
