Dr Hugh Maguire
Hugh is the Director of the Dr Williams’s Trust & Library, a London-based charity dating back to the early 1700s. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, he lectured through the 1990s in the University of Otago and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. In this same period he organised a range of academic conferences and delivered papers across New Zealand and Australia. On his return to Ireland he worked for the Heritage Council and delivered the Council’s well-regarded Museum Standards Programme for Ireland. He had extensive dealings with the Irish conservation and collections-based sectors and acted as an assessor on the Council’s grants schemes. Hugh introduced the conservation internship scheme whereby the Heritage Council supports conservation internships at a range of institutions nationally.
Hugh later acted as Director of the Hunt Museum, Limerick, between 2009 and 2016 – its longest serving director to date, where he brought the Museum through its first accreditation process. In this role he was particularly conscious of the ongoing challenges posed in preserving historic buildings and collections of significance. A former member of the International Jury for the Europa Nostra Conservation Awards, Hugh now sits on the Arts Council England’s Designation Panel and is a board member of the Independent Library Association (UK). He continues as an assessor for the Heritage Council’s accreditation programme.
Hugh has long involvement with the Ireland National Committee, as board member and Chair. He chaired ICOM’s International Working Group on National Committees.