The Arts Council have revealed ambitious proposed plans to convert the disused Odlums Mill on Dublin Port into an expansive artists’ campus. As part of a plan to revitalise the Port area, the plan sees one of Dublin’s biggest abandoned buildings turned into a multi-faceted creative space complete with studios, rehearsal rooms, communal centres and more.

The preliminary concept sees 45 general workspaces as well as further specialist hubs up to 100 square metres. The plan also includes possible concepts for conversion of the unique Provender Mill and Animal Feed Store on the site, which would be more suited to performing arts and street art. The campus would also contain a creative courtyard as well as “The Spine”, a communal hallway which runs through the building. The plans also allows for “fabrication space”, which is dedicated space for larger than normal art projects and something that Dublin currently does not have.

If the plan goes ahead, it would be considered Dublin’s flagship artistic space. With questions still around if the campus would be mostly private or public, it is certain it would run under a non-for-profit model. The goal of having a diversity of artist disciplines and identities being hosted, whilst serving as many creatives as possible. If built, the campus would be one of the most ambitious art-related Irish infrastructure projects in recent memory and prove transformative for the artist population of Ireland.

Plans for the first artists in residence could happen as early as 2025. This would see Ireland follow in a European trend of overhauling disused docklands and converting them into cultural epicentres of cities. Cities such as Amsterdam and Bristol have converted their dockland areas to contain housing, studios, cultural centres and independent shops. Dublin docklands currently lay at a 13% vacancy rate, three times the national average.

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