Dr Michael Waldron is a curator, educator, and researcher based in Cork, Ireland with an interdisciplinary background in literary criticism and art history.
He is presently Curator of Collections & Special Projects at Crawford Art Gallery. He has previously lectured in English, Irish Studies, European Art History, and History of Art at University College Cork. He holds a PhD in English literature and has published on Irish artists John Hogan, Samuel Forde, Patrick Hennessy, John Noel Smith, Joseph Heffernan, John Rainey, and writer Elizabeth Bowen. He is on the editorial board of The Elizabeth Bowen Review. He has previously been co-investigator of The Samuel Forde Project (2012-14) and research assistant for Deep Maps: West Cork Coastal Cultures (2016-17). He has co-curated the exhibitions The Crawford at the Castle (2016-17) at Dublin Castle, and Samuel Forde: Visions of Tragedy (2014) and The Gibson Bequest 1919-2019: Selecting, Collecting & Philanthropy (2019-20) at Crawford Art Gallery. He is the curator of Deep Maps: West Cork Coastal Cultures (2017) at The Glucksman and several further exhibitions at Crawford Art Gallery, including Recasting Canova(2019-2022). He has also coordinated the events Living Artists in National Collections (2017) at Dublin Castle, ‘A Heart That is Free’: Terence MacSwiney in Context (2016) at Cork Opera House as part of Cork Midsummer Festival, and DUETS: Creativity in Context (2014) facilitated by REACT Knowledge Exchange Hub at Firkin Crane, Cork.
Access and education is at the core of each of these projects and endeavours, whether it takes the form of teaching, interpretation, facilitation, or curation. He joined the Board of Sample-Studios in August 2021.