Draft:Ciarán Benson

Ciarán Benson is an Irish academic, known for his role as Emeritus Professor of Psychology at University College Dublin (UCD). . Born in Dun Laoghaire in 1950, he has been involved in research and leadership in the arts and society since the late 1970s.

Benson authored "The Place of the Arts in Irish Education" (1979), often referred to as 'The Benson Report.' This report has been influential in shaping aspects of the Irish Arts Council policy. He served as the inaugural chairman of the Irish Film Institute from 1979 to 1984, a period during which he contributed to the development of its early goals.

His government appointment as chairman of the Irish Arts Council coincided with the establishment of the first Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in Ireland. President Michael D. Higgins has acknowledged Benson's earlier work in the arts and education in his ministerial policies. When receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts, University College Dublin Arts Society, in November, 2013, President Higgins said: “When I became Minister for the Arts, in 1993, I had all that debate behind me. And I readily acknowledge the influence the Benson Report has had on the policies I sought to implement between 1993 and 1997. Indeed, as a Minister who also had responsibility for broadcasting, I had, for example, to consider where I stood on the choice of constituting my fellow citizens as market segments, or as citizens with rights within a communicative order. The choice was one between active citizenship within the cultural space or passive consumption of cultural products.”.

Benson’s approach to arts policy-making during his time at the Council was characterized by an evidence-based, cultural democratic methodology. The Irish Government accepted the Arts Council's first national Arts Plan 1995-1997, formulated by Benson, leading to an increase in government grant-aid to the Arts Council. In his extensive, critical review of Benson’s Arts Council, the academic Pat Cooke said “Benson shared Little’s authentically democratising impulses and his vision of the arts’ potential to enrich the everyday lives of citizens was rooted in moral - philosophical principles“ (p. 613), and that “judging by the minutes for his years as chairman, the Arts Council got through an enormous amount of practical detailed work across all art forms”.

Benson’s academic work reflects this same interest in philosophically-informed, interdisciplinary inquiries into the relationships of ‘self’ and society. These range, for instance, from critiques of the misuse of ideas of ‘IQ’ in societal, or ethnic, comparisons to Benson’s conception of ‘The No-Point-of-View Phenomenon’ in the work of the American artist James Turrell

His book "The Cultural Psychology of Self: Place, Morality and Art in Human Worlds" (2001) was described by critic Fintan O’Toole as a significant philosophical work from Ireland. Scholars Rom Harré and Jerome Bruner have also commented positively on its content and unique perspective.

In addition to his academic and policy work, Benson has curated art exhibitions, such as “In the Time of Shaking” in 2004 at the Irish Museum of Art, which supported Amnesty International and was opened by Yoko Ono.

Currently, Benson continues his involvement in the arts as chair of Poetry Ireland

Personal life
In 1987, Benson suffered a spinal injury leading to Brown-Séquard syndrome, requiring him to undergo extensive rehabilitation. He was once married to artist Carmel Benson and is currently married to artist Vivienne Roche.