Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA) will be closed to the public for the next seven weeks as part of refurbishment project. The works, which are in the region of half a million euro, are essential building improvements and include fire safety work.
The refurbishment works are being carried out by Collins Construction of Cecil Street, Limerick, following a competitive tender process and will continue until Monday 04 June 2019.
The project is being funded by Limerick City and County Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht through funding from the Arts and Culture Capital Scheme, which is focused on enhancing the existing stock of arts and culture centres throughout the country.
Zest Café, which operates in the new extension will not be affected and will remain open to the public.
Una McCarthy, Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art said: “While we all want the gallery to remain open, it is important that these works are carried out as soon as possible. A window opened up in the schedule of the temporary exhibition programme so we have decided to close now until the beginning of June to carry out the works.”
“We looked at keeping the gallery open during the refurbishment works but the advice from the design team was close for a specific period and get them done in one go. Otherwise we could have been working with a construction site for a year or even more.”
“We have a very loyal visitor base and we will look forward to welcoming them back in June.”
While there will be no on-site exhibitions for the duration of the closure, Limerick City Gallery of Art will continue to be working on various projects. These include:
- The Past is a Foreign Country, by artist, Anita Groener opening in in The Lab, Dublin on Thursday 23 May
- The staging of a performance of Famished, by Cherry Smyth in St. Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday 30 May
- A new project called The Farm Project takes place in Kilmallock Library
In addition to the LCGA’s permanent collection, there is a packed schedule of exhibitions opening in Limerick City Gallery of Art once the work is completed. These include:
- Lough Gur artist Robert Ryan’s Forgotten Existence
- Clare-based artist, Fiona O’ Dwyer’s exhibition, I went up the mountain with…
- LCGA is the final venue of the Mary Swanzy exhibition, VOYAGES, in conjunction with Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).
