set of objects being the set of rare thangkas, or Buddhist tapestries from 18th-century Tibet. There is also a large display of Japanese woodblock prints, Chinese metalwork, and numerous religious figures. The new exhibition was curated by Dr Audrey Whitty, and a conference on the collections was convened in November 2008. Temporary exhibitions Special temporary exhibitions are mounted regularly in the former Riding School, which is behind the western side of the Palatine Square, behind the reception area and museum shop. It was opened in 2005. In summer 2007 replicas of six Irish High Crosses that were subsequently shown internationally. In 2019, a temporary exhibition of 100 photographs of Ireland in the 1950s from the collection of Henri Cartier-Bresson was put on display titled Ireland in Focus: Photographing Ireland in the 1950s. Dead Zoo at Large In 2009 and 2010, a temporary exhibition of specimens from the Natural History Division of the museum was opened at the Riding School. The exhibition took place while the main Natural History museum on Merrion Street was closed for refurbishment. (A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths In March 2019, the museum mounted the exhibition curated by artist Alison Lowry and curator Dr Audrey Whitty entitled (A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths. It explores themes of institutional abuse, reflecting on the experiences of those who spent time in Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes, and the industrial school system in Ireland. It received an "Honourable Mention" from the Annual Global Fine Arts Awards 2019 and nominated for the Global Humanity category in the same awards. Artists featured include Connie Roberts, Úna Burke, and Jayne Cherry. The exhibition was due to run until May 2020, and in January 2021 the museum announced it would acquire the glass piece by Lowry from the exhibition, A New Skin, along with a number of her other works. Contemporary collections The museum began a programme of rapid response or contemporary collecting in the mid-2010s in response a number of seminal events in Irish culture, the first of which centred around the referendum on marriage equality in 2015. Under the direction of the curator Brenda Malone, the museum collected ephemera relating to the political campaigns. This included the campaign materials for the referendum on the constitutional ban on abortion in Ireland in 2018. Malone started collecting political posters the morning after the vote, as well as putting a call out on social media for members