The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) has announced a new fund of €600,000 to acquire works for their National Collection by artists living and working in Ireland.
The funding comes as part of an additional €1 million package that the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media have allocated to support the arts and culture during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been divided between the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.
Director of IMMA, Annie Fletcher said: "We are lucky to have such a wealth of incredible artists in this country and we are very proud to be in a position to invest in artworks and develop IMMA's Collection at this critical time.
"This fund provides us with the resources to bring art works permanently into the Collection, ensuring that the Irish public has a Collection that is truly reflective of the present concerns of contemporary society."
The fund enables IMMA to support the plethora of talent across the visual arts scene in Ireland, while also providing artists with the resources and organisational advocacy to enable them to practice as artists, now and into the future.
When acquiring new works as part of the fund, IMMA will pay particular attention to artworks that can activate impactful conversations about contemporary society and reflect on society’s urgencies in a time of dramatic social change.
"With the multiple crises facing the world - climate, health, economic; IMMA works with artists to create spaces where the cultural imagination that the world needs right now is given space and is accelerated," noted Fletcher.
