Glenn Loughran is an artist and researcher working in socially engaged art, and education. He holds a BA in Painting, an MA in Sculpture, and a PhD in Education from the NCAD.

An innovator in art, education and social practice in Ireland his research develops transversal modes of exchange between communities and contexts through artistic events. Key research areas focus on; socially engaged art, innovation in education, event-based research, community engagement and Island studies. Recent book publications include: What is an Island? Towards a Patchwork Pedagogy for a World Archipelago (2024. Create Press). Forthcoming in 2025, Being in the World Anew: Events of Art and Education in Post-Climate Times, with Prof. CarlAnders Säftröm. (Routledge).  

Upcoming exhibitions in 2025 include: Screen Dialogues. A sculptural intervention with the Contributory Clinic in Seine-Saint-Denis, as part of the NesT research project. In late 2025 he will present a large-scale solo show of Pedagogical Things at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. Recently he has exhibited internationally at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Helsinki Research Pavilion Venice Biennale, Medialab Prado, Madrid, the Dakar Biennale, Dakar, the Lithuania Biennale, Kaunas, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin and the NCAD Gallery. His research has been widely presented, including at the Creative Time Summit, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris, ELIA Biennale and published as book chapters by Routledge, Columbia University Press, and Sternberg Press.

In 2020 he set up the archipelagic MA Art and Environment delivered across the islands of West Cork and is current director of the programme.  He was Principle Investigator on the IRC Enterprise Partnership Scheme with Dr Grainne Coughlan, titled: A New Evaluative Register for Collaborative and Socially Engaged Arts (2021 –2024). He was Co-Pi on the FAST45 Art School Futures Labs 2045 (2021 –2024) and is Co-investigator on NesT: Networking Ecologically Smart Territories / H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (2021 – 25). He is a member of the Working Group on Artistic Research at the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). He is currently supervising three PhD’s, and has brought to completion two PhD’s and one Post-doctoral Award in the areas of Art Education, and Socially Engaged Art.