ATU Galway art graduate Taim Haimet has won the prestigious Taylor Art Award’ at the Royal Dublin Society Visual Art Awards.
The recent graduate of Atlantic Technological University School of Design and Creative Arts in Galway specialises in 3D studies, which encompasses Sculpture, Digital Media and Ceramics.
The award was presented to her at a ceremony held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Thursday, December 7 last week.
Immersed in a rich history of Irish art, the RDS Taylor Art Prize (€10,000) is the premier award of the RDS Visual Art Awards.
Previous winners (1878 – 2022) include Walter Osborne, Sir William Orpen, Seán Keating, Nora McGuinness and Louis le Brocquy alongside contemporary artists such as Eamon O’Kane, Dorothy Cross and James Hanley.
The Taylor Art Award is given annually to a graduate of an Irish art college or an Irish art student graduating from an art college abroad to assist them with the development of their career as a visual artist.
The Judging panel of the RDS Visual Art Awards decide upon the winner.
Taim, who is a French student of Syrian descent, is now enrolled on the MA in Creative Practice at ATU Galway city – Wellpark Road campus.
“It is an incredible honour to receive the Taylor Arts Award. If you had told me a year ago I would be blessed with such an opportunity I would have never believed it!”
“I am delighted to be bringing it home to Galway. It is also a recognition for our college and the incredible work our lecturers do with us.”
“I am immensely grateful to my lecturers Ger Leslie, Louise Manifold and Katherine West, who supported and encouraged me when I doubted myself. They went out of their way to facilitate my work coming to life.”
“Being a smaller art college we have this closeness between students and lecturers. We can cross between disciplines and find support when we need it. I hope we get to see many more ATU students in the RDS in the coming years!’’
Gerard Leslie, lecturer in Sculpture said, “We are very proud that again one of our students has achieved such high recognition for their work. Taim’s work stood out as exceptional alongside the other 14 nominees selected.”
“Awards of this nature help reinforce the significance and importance of creativity and ambition. Awards help sustain successful graduates in the primary ventures of their practice.”
“Fundamentally and most importantly they underpin graduate confidence in asserting their role and identity as an ‘artist’ addressing the social frameworks of where we exist”, added Ger Leslie.
