Cork's refurbished Crawford Art Gallery to reopen in 2028

It is unlikely that the Crawford Art Gallery, which closed for renovation last September, will reopen before Christmas 2028, The Echo has been told.

The extensive refurbishment works, which come with a €93m price-tag, more than treble that of the initial €29m 2020 estimate, commenced this month and have been given a 123-week time frame for completion.

That would mean the work would likely be completed by mid-April, 2028. The gallery’s director, Mary McCarthy, said a months-long process of fit-out, commissioning and reoccupation of the gallery would then follow.

She said it was her intention that the gallery would re-open before Christmas 2028.

“It took us a year to get out, but we hope we can come back in a more phased basis to bring the collection back into the building, and to put it back on the walls, and to get the café and the visitors’ services open, it really will depend on the hand-over of the building and that process,” Ms McCarthy said.

She said the gallery would endeavour to keep the process of restocking as brief as possible, and expected to be able to offer a firm update during the first half of this year.

“We will definitely do our absolute best to open within the calendar year of 2028. It is our intention to get this service back open for the people of Cork and the city centre as soon as possible,” Ms McCarthy said.

The refurbishment, which is being carried out for the Office of Public Works (OPW) by contractor PJ Hegarty and Sons, will encompass a five-story extension and a new restaurant, and will give the gallery an additional 50% in exhibition and storage space for its 3,500-item collection.

Budgeted 

In November, arts minister Patrick O’Donovan said the work is now budgeted at €93.1m, a figure which includes Vat and a provision for contingency. As of November, he said, €6.5m had already been spent.

Mr O’Donovan said the original estimate, in 2020, had been made prior to the planning and design phase, and the project has changed substantially since then. There had also been, he said, considerable construction inflation.

In December, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the project was “of a different scale from what originally conceived”, describing it as “much more exciting”.

First built in 1724 as a custom house, the Crawford has in the past operated as a school of art, a municipal art gallery, and a national cultural institution.

The Crawford also served, from 1892, as Cork’s first public reading room, recording in its first year as many as 500 visitors a day. The following year it offered Cork its first lending library service, hosting Ireland’s first library collection of children’s books.

The library service moved in 1905 to a purpose-built Carnegie Library on Anglesea St. This would be burnt to the ground by British forces during the 1920 Burning of Cork.