Kathleen’s experience in sourcing, and curating, unique national crafts has given her an invaluable insight into the materials, skills and passion behind some of Ireland’s best known designs. Kathleen has an ongoing interest in the diversity of Irish talent and art and enjoys exploring new ways to share it with national, and international, audiences alike.

In 2012, and working closely with local food producers, she opened the award winning Anocht restaurant showcasing natural Irish ingredients in a unique, historic environment. The restaurant featured in Lucinda Sullivan’s ‘Best Places to Eat’ and in the Michelin Guide.

In 2016 Kathleen was awarded the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce President’s award followed by Employer of the Year in 2018. She has been a board member of, and collaborator with, Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Kilkenny County Enterprise Board.

Ian has been involved with St Canice’s Kilkenny Credit Union since 1995 and was President from 2005 to 2008. He is a non-stipendiary minister with the Church of Ireland, and is a director of Ossory Youth and the Good Shepherd Centre, Kilkenny.

Ian has a strong commitment to the arts and to making the arts available – and relevant – to all sectors of the community, particularly to marginalised groups. He sees the arts as having the capacity to stimulate creativity, thereby creating an inclusive society.

Before this he directed the Sponsorship and Friends Strategy for Wexford Festival Opera and Wexford Opera House and managed key relationships for the company with leading Irish and international philanthropists. He has represented the cultural sector on the Minister’s Working Group on Arts Funding & Philanthropy. Formerly, Eamonn was Assistant Chief Executive and Head of Fundraising with the leading Irish research charity Fighting Blindness and Vice-President of the Students’ Union at NUI Maynooth. Eamonn previously served on the board of Blackwater Valley Opera Festival from 2017 to 2019.

Emily-Ann has acted as an external architecture critic to Waterford Institute of Technology and continues to mentor architecture students in the University of Westminster, London.

A member of the Architects Registration Board in the UK since 2014 and a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland since 2017. She is a graduate of the University of Westminster, London and holds a MA in Architecture from the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Her focus shifted to building conservation and adaptive re-use in recent years and in 2010 she was appointed as Architectural Conservation Officer for 3 years. He then went on to project manage two landmark civic projects in Kilkenny City; the conversion of Evans’ Home to the new home for the Butler Gallery & the transformation of St.Mary’s Church to the 'Medieval Mile Museum'.

At the other end of the building spectrum her work also involved reactivating vacant homes and leading a Rural & Community Pilot project for the residential regeneration of Upper Bridge Street in Callan, Co.Kilkenny.

Evelyn has a keen interest in the visual arts and is delighted to continue her close involvement with the Butler Gallery in her new role as board member.

As a member of Retail Excellence Ireland his stores have been awarded recognition not only as a florist / designer but also in best retail practices. Lamber works with Irish and International event planners as preferred florist of choice for high end weddings and events. Lamber has a strong commitment to the arts and is a longstanding supporter and supply partner of Kilkenny Arts Festival.

His passion lies with the Visual art and in particular meeting with and learning about living contemporary artists.

Helen is a highly experienced curator and astute manager who developed a multi-faceted programme for IMMA's audiences, across all ages in formal and informal education, with communities of interest and general public from its inception in 1991 to 2022. Initially trained in Fine Art at the NCAD and working on experimental socially engaged arts projects for a decade before joining IMMA, Helen adopted a pioneering approach to breaking new ground in creating people-centred access programmes to the museum.

She has experience of working with partners from local community organisations to national and international collaborations exploring how art and artists can work with diverse communities. She has fostered relationships with national arts, education and community development organisations as well as many international collaborations e/g Socrates and Grundtvig E.U. Learning Partnerships and the TATE and MoMA.

She has presented her work at conferences, published in peer review publications and acted as external examiner to several courses at TUD (former DIT). She is currently a board member of the Family Resource Centre, St Michael’s Estate, Inchicore, Dublin, a member of the Bealtaine (Age & Opportunity) advisory group and an expert for the editorial panel for EPALE, the Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (epale.ec.europa.eu).

She has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad since graduating from IADT in 2006, including a solo exhibition at the Butler Gallery in 2011.

Her work is represented in many collections, including the National gallery of Ireland, The Office of Public Works and the Arts Council and she has won numerous awards.

Since being elected associate member of the RHA in 2018, she is actively involved in the organisation, which includes curating the Annual Exhibition and serving on the RHA Programme Board.