Art and Design / October 12, 2020

IMMA announces €600,000 fund to acquire works by artists in Ireland

Installation view of the current IMMA Collection exhibition Ghosts from the Recent Past. Photo Ros Kavanagh.
Art and Design / October 12, 2020

IMMA announces €600,000 fund to acquire works by artists in Ireland

Words: Staff Writer

A welcome piece of news for artists in Ireland.

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) has announced a new fund to purchase new works for its collection by artists working and living in Ireland.

Currently, exhibition opportunities for artists within the country are extremely limited outside of some creative moves online to host virtual exhibitions.

So the new fund, supported by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, is a welcome bit of news for the artistic community within Ireland. The new fund will expand the national collection of contemporary art and support artists financially, providing a pot for IMMA to acquire new works. This new fund comes as part of the €1m fund provided to IMMA and Crawford Art Gallery to support the arts community within Ireland during COVID.

IMMA’s director Annie Fletcher, said “Throughout the pandemic we have been evaluating how IMMA, as a National Cultural Institution, can best support artists. We believe a bold acquisition policy is crucial and are delighted that Minister Catherine Martin recognises this as a meaningful way to support the sector. IMMA embraces the role of arts and culture in bringing the future a little clearer into focus. With the multiple crises facing the world – climate, health, economic; IMMA works with artists to create spaces where the cultural imagination that the world needs right now is given space and is accelerated.

We are lucky to have such a wealth of incredible artists in this country and we are very proud to be in a position to invest in artworks and develop IMMA’s Collection at this critical time. As we approach IMMA’s 30th birthday in 2021, we are reflecting on its history and how we want to shape its future. As a dynamic modern and contemporary collecting institution in Ireland IMMA is a collaborative civic space, a hub where our audiences come together to explore visions, thoughts, ideas and the future. Now, this fund provides us with the resources to bring art works permanently into the Collection, ensuring that the Irish public has a Collection that is truly reflective of the present concerns of contemporary society.”