Groundswell of support for new city art gallery

Theatre57, a Galway arts collective with more than 90 members, has backed plans to establish a long-term cultural hub in the space that’s currently home to the Galway International Arts Festival’s main visual art gallery.

The space, behind the GPO and accessed from William Street has been lent to the Festival by An Post for this year’s event, but arts groups and politicians are calling for a permanent gallery and arts hub on the State-owned site.

Theatre57, consisting of more than 90 artists working in theatre in Galway, has been advocating for investment in cultural infrastructure, specifically rehearsal and development space, since the group first came together in May 2018.

Representatives of Theatre57 have met with local Fine Gael TD Hildegarde Naughton who is campaigning to have some of the site made available to arts organisations.

Two weeks ago, Minister Richard Bruton, who has responsibility for An Post’s property portfolio, visited the temporary 8,000 sq ft gallery and met the Arts Festival’s Chief Executive, John Crumlish and its Artistic Director, Paul Fahy.

Deputy Naughton is now organising a meeting with Arts Minister, Josepha Madigan – this will take place when the Arts Festival ends, according to the Galway West TD.

Her efforts have been welcomed by the Festival, with Paul Fahy stating a permanent space of this scale would offer huge potential for year-round events.

“We couldn’t agree more with Paul Fahy’s comments that the former Telephone Exchange building would make a fantastic space for a cultural hub,” said Theatre57 Chair Róisín Stack.

“The Festival has highlighted yet again what a municipal gallery would mean to the city and we would add that a designated rehearsal space, like those that exist in Cork, Limerick and Dublin, but not here in Galway, would greatly enrich the city’s cultural offering.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.