Home

•

2022 Review

•

Chairman’s Foreword

It often happens that we only realise the extent of change when we look in the rear-view mirror. For the Board of IMMA and myself the year 2022 now looks like a year of innovation through transition.

The Board spent a good deal of time during 2022 discussing the Museum’s future strategy. The timing was apposite as Annie Fletcher had been in place for three years, we were emerging from the coronavirus hiatus, and IMMA was experimenting with new kinds of programming. The strategy discussion concluded with four key pillars of the future strategy. These self-defining principles see IMMA as a Global Connector, a Centre for Research and Innovation, a Radically Public Space, and a Catalyst for Change. The Board is very excited about the new strategy which will be rolled out fully in 2023.

The year saw some new initiatives that we hope will become a feature of IMMA’s programming in the near future. In October, the site welcomed more than 9,000 visitors to its inaugural eco festival, Earth Rising. This was an interdisciplinary event involving artists, architects, designers, activists, authors, and performers all striving to bring a creative perspective to the environmental challenges that lie ahead. We also saw IMMA playing a leading role in the Night-time Economy Task Force initiative to bring evening programming to our iconic venue.

Visitors to IMMA rebounded in 2022 with numbers 13% higher than 2019. We are sure that the exciting indoor and outdoor programme has attracted more people to engage with IMMA’s diverse activities. This improvement is against a background of fewer visitors to Ireland from overseas. The plans for the year ahead look to build on this success and continue to welcome the public to our beautiful home.

IMMA also commenced a new collaboration in 2022 with Irish law firm, Matheson LLP, to create the Matheson Creativity Hub. This re-design and re-purposing of the Project Spaces at IMMA is a collaboration with Matheson LLP in memory of their former Chairperson and IMMA’s former and much missed Board Member, Tim Scanlon, who sadly passed in 2020. This project is part of a wider long-term project to reimagine IMMA’s reception and public spaces channelling the very best of architecture and design thinking, with the ambition to make these spaces diverse, inclusive and convivial. This new Hub will be used by IMMA’s Engagement and Learning Team, community groups, creative partners, and artists.

In 2022 IMMA also said farewell to an old friend, Kevin Lonergan, of our parent Department. Kevin was an enthusiastic lover of the arts and supporter of IMMA. In his place we welcomed Deirdre Mahony who has made an immediate impact with her positive encouragement. The Department has generously supported the acquisition of contemporary art to the IMMA Collection in recent years and renewed that commitment with a Grant of €850,000 in 2022.

A photographed aerial view of IMMA with its inner colonnaded courtyard clearly visible. The courtyard is divided into quadrants by four paths that meet in the centre. Right in the middle is what is described as an eco-pavilion, which was part of the Earth Rising Eco Art Festival in 2022. It is a spherical structure made of a willow lattice through which people can be seen wandering about. To the right is a flap constructed of the same material, attached to the top of the structure, and raised off the ground on solid blocks. People are strolling about the courtyard, and to the right, in front of the clock tower, there is a van-like structure that could be a food outlet. People can be seen sitting at wooden picnic tables. The East wing of the building is in the foreground, with the Baroque Chapel stained glass window to the right. The Classical-style building includes a clocktower surmounted by a blue-green pointed copper pinnacle, with a weathercock. There is a beige bulging tent facing the facade in the foreground, with other tents and a few vehicles dotted about. Rows of houses, a car park and a sports field can be seen in the background.

IMMA Eco Arts:

Éirigh Eco Pavilion at the Earth Rising Eco Art Festival, 2022.

Annie Fletcher and her team have been pivotal to generating the new vision of IMMA’s future. There were also significant changes internally as we wished a fond farewell to both Helen O’Donoghue, Head of Engagement and Learning who retired after over 30 years of inspiring leadership at IMMA and Rachel Thomas Head of Exhibitions who departed for an exciting new role as chief curator at the Hayward Gallery in London. It is always gratifying to work with people who have such love for their work, combined with enthusiasm, drive and imagination. The programme of exhibitions, outdoor events, and engagement are constantly evolving and there is a buzz of excitement whenever a new programme is announced.

The OPW are valued and dependable partners in the running of the site. The team, under the new leadership of Rosemary Collier, is working closely with IMMA to develop new plans for capital investment in the historical buildings on site. The grounds are maintained in beautiful condition for the use of the local community and the formal gardens are a feature of most tourists’ visits to Dublin.

A photographed view of the front entrance of IMMA, on the South side of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, with blue sky reflected in the top 7 windows. The facade is 17th century Classical, apart from the modern, glass door, in which the reflection of the photographer is just visible. The three ground floor windows to either side of the front door are almost in darkness. ‘The Drummer’, a grey bronze sculpture by Barry Flanagan, of a tall hare standing on a triangular base is holding a stick in one hand/paw and a round, drum-like object in the other, as though about to beat the drum. The hare’s ears reach as high as the upper floor of the building. To the left is a structure that resembles a wooden door, propped length-ways on its side, creating a triangle shape on a base. To the left of that is a grey, square planter holding a green conical-shaped box-hedge. To the right of the hare is another wooden structure that looks like low seating behind a low platform with a small, red metal railing at the front, and there is an identical planter with conical-shaped box-hedge to the right of that. The two seating structures are installations created by the artists’ collective Forerunner. The hare casts a long shadow to the right across the gravelled forecourt.

Forerunner: Forerunner, Y O U N G F O S S I L, 2021. Installation views of artwork re-staged for IMMA Outdoors 2022. Seating Structures – wood, steel, sawdust, dragon’s blood, resin, paper, fabric. Commissioned by IMMA for IMMA Outdoors 2021. Supported by Public Service Innovation Fund. Presented with the kind support of OPW. Photography Louis Haugh.

Finally, I would like to thank my Board for their hard work during 2022. We look forward to welcoming some new Board colleagues in 2023 but in 2022 we said farewell to Jane Dillon-Byrne. Jane was a member of the Board since 2014. She chaired the Collections & Acquisitions Committee for several years and was a passionate and wise colleague. We wish her all the best in her retirement.

2023 will again see the rising ambition of IMMA with the public launch of the new strategy, exciting exhibitions, new learning, engagement and research initiatives around collections and archives, and a host of outdoor events including Earth Rising. I hope to see many more people enjoying the best of Irish contemporary culture at IMMA during the year.

David Harvey
Chair