We are delighted to announce the publication of a new edited volume in the SEMPRE Studies in The Psychology of Music.

This particular volume in the SEMPRE series is titled The Artist and Academia, edited by Helen Phelan and Graham Welch. The book’s genesis was a gathering of academics and artists at the University of Limerick, Eire in November 2014 to celebrate the development and work of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (IWAMD) on the 20th Anniversary of its founding. The gathering featured lectures, workshops, student presentations and performances, and includes guest speakers as well as artists from the local community. Such was the richness of the multi-arts content over the three days, that Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Chair of Music and Founding Director of the IWAMD, suggested that it should act as a catalyst for a book which explores what it might mean to be an artist in our contemporary world — a prospect which has come sharply into focus during 2020 at this time of global pandemic.

The aim of this edited book, therefore, is to be a celebration of diversity in the arts and, in particular, artists, whilst noting their oft subversive — in the sense of extending and challenging — roles in our private, social and cultural lives. The contents have been designed as a juxtaposition of insightful, extended academic ‘essays’ into particular arts experiences with more reflective ‘interludes’ which offer a nuanced personal expansion of what it means professionally and academically to be an artist.

The book is dedicated to the vision, energy, passion, and joyfulness of an outstanding musician, composer, performer and academic, Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin (1950–2018). All those who knew him, either personally, through study, or through his music, would have been enriched and changed by the experience. We are delighted to honour his memory and his passion for education and the arts in this collective publication.