Crawford Art Gallery unlikely to reopen before Christmas 2028 after €93m revamp

Gallery director says fit-out and reoccupation after construction mean reopening is unlikely before the end of 2028

The extensive refurbishment works — which come with a €93m price-tag — commenced in mid-December and have been given a 123-week time frame for completion.

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

The extensive refurbishment works — which come with a €93m price-tag — 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, but the gallery’s director, Mary McCarthy, said a months-long process of fit-out, commissioning and re-occupation of the gallery would then follow. She said it was her intention that the gallery reopen 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 handover of the building and that process,” Ms McCarthy said.

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

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

The gallery’s director, Mary McCarthy, said a months-long process of fit-out, commissioning and re-occupation of the gallery would follow renovations. File photo: Joleen Cronin

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

The cost of the works has more than trebled since an initial 2020 estimate of €29m. 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 2020 estimate 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.

The extensive refurbishment works — which come with a €93m price-tag — commenced in mid-December and have been given a 123-week time frame for completion. File photo

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

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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 was burnt to the ground by British forces during the 1920 Burning of Cork.