Work will begin early next year on a €29 million redevelopment of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.
The gallery will close for part of the four-year project, but its management team say that will be necessary in order to future-proof the building for generations to come.
Cork's Crawford Art Gallery is a national cultural institution.
Its collection comprises more than 3,000 works, ranging from 18th century Irish and European sculpture and painting, through to contemporary art and video installations.
Prior to the pandemic, it drew more than a quarter of a million visitors per year and was one of Cork's main tourist attractions.
But parts of the Crawford - incorporating the former Cork Custom House - date from 1724 and are almost 300 years old.
"This is a generational opportunity to, very importantly, conserve the heritage of this building," says Crawford Art Gallery Director, Mary McCarthy.
"The building will retain its very discreet character at the front, because it is a heritage building with a lot of limitations, but you will also be able to see the building from other parts of the city. It will feel restored, but fresh and contemporary too."
Today, at a function in the Crawford Art Gallery, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Arts Minister Catherine Martin announced that Dublin-based Grafton Architects have been appointed as principal design consultants on the project.
Founding Partner of Grafton Architects, Yvonne Farrell, was at today's announcement. She says she and her team have already started visualising what the Crawford might look like, post re-development.
"What will it look like," she asks. "It's not so much what it will look like as what it will feel like -- what people will experience. We hope to iron out any wrinkles that might exist. We want to make it fluid and accessible to all, to add something that's both a gem of the 21st century but also embedded in the history of this beautiful, layered gallery."
Work on the project will begin in the second quarter next year. The gallery is expected to be closed for around two years and will re-open in mid-2025.
