Trinity to commission 4 new sculptures of women

Rosalind Franklin

Trinity Women Graduates look forward to seeing more representations of women displayed in the Long Room of the Old Library in the future. After seeking suggestions from Trinity students, staff and alumni the selection panel received over 500 suggestions. Four women were selected, two from Science and two from Arts and Humanities. They are Rosalind Franklin, scientist, Ada Lovelace, mathematician, Augusta Gregory, folklorist, dramatist and theatre-founder and Mary Wollstonecraft, women’s rights advocate. The next stage of the process will be to seek expressions of interest from the artistic community. While there are already 40 busts in the Long Room, none of them represent women.

Coincidentally, a portrait of Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has recently gone on display in the Royal Society. Dame Bell Burnell joined Trinity Women Graduates and Women in Research Ireland for a webinar on women in Astrophysics earlier this year. We look forward to a time when the unveiling of an artwork representing a woman is not a headline news item!

You can read more about the Long Room art commission here.

To view Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s portait see this Guardian article. If you’d like to see her webinar click here.