Behind the scenes at Crawford: 'The staff will be busier than ever'
Jean O'Donovan, registrar at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, preparing for the big move. Picture: Clare Keogh
Now that our public closure date has been announced, we really hope people will remember to stop by to spend some time with the artworks they love before we close on the evening of September 22.
Our final exhibition, Now You See It…,is a curated exhibition of works selected by the public, of artworks from the collection that they most wanted to see before we closed. That’s been lovely for us, getting works out of storage that in some instances haven’t been seen for a number of years, and having people come in to visit them.
Even though the gallery will temporarily close to the public this autumn, the staff will be busier than ever behind the scenes.
I actually feel quite a lot of mixed emotions about it. Even though it’s going to be incredibly busy and it’s a really exciting time, it’s also going to be quite bittersweet.
I think it will be quite eerie coming into the gallery every day and not having members of the public around, but it’s also going to be a bit of a relief, as we won’t have to navigate people’s safety and access as we move large heavy works out of the building, down staircases and through doors.
The Lower Gallery has already been closed off for use as a packing space and we have a team of technicians working constantly to pack artworks.
With over 3,500 artworks to move before the contractors begin the redevelopment, it will be a race against the clock to carefully move the entire collection.
We’ve started the work, but the pace has been slower while the public galleries have been open: we’ve sent about 700 artworks out to storage so far.
Most of these have been 2-D works like paintings, drawings and works on paper. We’ve also started getting deliveries of transit frames, known as T frames, for those works that are more delicate or have ornate frames that need protecting.
After we close to the public, the decant will ramp up even more because we’ll be looking to do a lot of the big moves that would be difficult or dangerous to do while we’re still open to the public.
We will bring down all the sculptures that are located on the top floor and get all the crates for the sculptures in the Sculpture Gallery and the friezes off the wall.
One move we’re planning for is the James Scanlon stained glass Lonradh window. We have spoken to the artist, and those stained glass pieces are set into a false window inside the window structure so there is a clear pane of glass outside it. Each of six stained glass pieces should just pop out of the beading it’s held in, and obviously that will be done very carefully and will need some scaffold. The plan is for that work to be reinstated when we come back.
Major artworks will be going on loan to other cultural institutions, and that is keeping staff busy too: we have 32 works that have just gone to the RHA, two of Brian Maguire’s Arizona series going to the Hugh Lane and a lot more to come in 2025 and 2026.
After we finish the work of decanting the rest of the artworks, it will be time for the staff to leave the building too, and that will happen in the wintertime. We will then work from temporary office space, where we know we will be as busy as ever.
A lot of what my office will be doing while offsite is actually preparing for the return to the gallery. We’ll be looking at conservation works on the artworks in storage, and we’re looking at glazing a lot more artworks, and reframing some pieces.
The collection team have a lot of projects that we also really hope to work on while we’re offsite: research into provenance of works, digitisation of archives, and getting on top of our documentation backlog.
Our curatorial team will also be very busy: not only will they be working on a programme of offsite events with partners including Cork Midsummer Festival for the duration of the closure, but they will also be researching and preparing for the reopening, and for the new spaces in the expanded Crawford, where there will be more exhibition space to curate.
Our Learn & Explore department, who programme everything to do with outreach and education, will be continuing their long-term community programmes, including Crawford Supported Studios and work with Cork Migrant Centre, in alternative venues and online.
They are also using the closure as an opportunity to devise new programmes and reach different audiences: they’re currently looking at possibilities with partners in the city libraries as well as at Cork prison.
All things going well, Crawford Art Gallery will reopen in its rejuvenated state in 2027. I don’t think I’m alone amongst the staff in being keenly aware that this closure period is actually going to fly by, and that before we know it, we’ll be back, but this time in a much-improved gallery space with better facilities both for the art and for the public.
