Prof. Kevin Rafter was appointed Chair of the Arts Council in June 2019. He is Full Professor of Political Communication at Dublin City University where he has been Head of the School of Communications and Associate Dean for Research. He has published extensively on Irish politics including recent books Taoisigh and the Arts (2022) and Resilient Reporting: Media Coverage of Irish Elections since 1969 (2020).

During Prof. Rafter's term as Arts Council Chair, the organisation’s budget increased from €75m to €134m. Much of his term as Chair was devoted to working with Council colleagues and staff to help steer the arts sector through the Covid-19 crisis. Among other initiatives since 2019, the Council established a new all-island dance company and commenced work on a major artist workspace development in partnership with Dublin Port as well as publishing several new policy documents including Championing Architecture (2022) and Pay the Artist (2020), which established new criteria for ensuring artists are paid fairly for their work.

Prof. Rafter previously served as Chair of Culture Ireland and was a board member of the Galway International Arts Festival, Oxfam Ireland and Dublin Bus. He has also been involved in regulation in the broadcast, financial and legal sectors. Prior to 2008, he worked as a political journalist holding senior positions with RTÉ News, the Irish Times, Sunday Times and Sunday Tribune as well as being editor of Magill magazine. He worked at the National Firm School IADT, Dun Laoghaire as Head of the School of Film & Media before joining DCU in 2010.