CREATIVE Limerick was Limerick City Council’s policy of supporting the (temporary) conversion of empty commercial space into valid art venue. Ormston House is one notable benefit to artists and their audiences – Limerick Print Makers, Culture Night, Ormston House artists have each accessed its stunning 2,100 sq ft. It is typical of street-front properties with enormous windows for showcase perks, in this instance looking on to Patrick and Ellen Streets.
Bedford Row is another address but alas, is losing its Creative Limerick currency as The Gallery has been sold by NAMA/ receiver Grant Thornton. Carved out of the Grand Central Buildings block, it was gallery owners Sadhbh Lyons and her son Eoghan who set up shop there in December 2011, initially to sell her paintings and his photographs. The floor -to-ceiling glass front served to showcase works by 70+ artists now operating out of The Gallery as a retail venue.
So to landlords, NAMA gods and auctioneers of this city: look into your portfolios and secure these homeless a new forum for the sale of art.
Sadhbh Lyons, who works as administrator at this viewing and retail space, looks back on a fond four years. “We secured The Gallery space initially through Creative Limerick Student scheme as Eoghan was then a photography student at Limerick College for Further Education. Over time we were approached by other artists looking for exhibition space in town and now I am agent for 70 on the books”.
All of them are free to sell elsewhere, from walk-in venues to websites to auctions. Sadhbh makes the point that The Gallery commission is 25 per cent/ 75 per cent to the artist, more generous than commercial rivals, and that any other income goes mostly to cover building utility costs.
It’s a feature of Limerick’s undoubted financial recovery that availability of such central commercial spaces with frontage has gone.
“We were among the last of the Creative Limerick venues to be granted, although The Hub on Rutland Street opened since”.
A Limerick woman herself, Sadhbh makes the point that The Gallery is a good premise for prospective landlords who wish to explore their (cost free) tenancy. Consider key points such as a clear legal contract with revision every six months – what ever suits the owner; security against vandalism; light and heating paid for; zero fire hazard; no food and beverage traffic.
“Showing your building or floor space off as a backdrop to art is a very attractive way to make use of an empty place. Looking into the prospect of being European Capital of Culture 2020, The Gallery as representative of so many artists [Anne Fitzgerald, Paul Weerasekera, Myra OReilly, Caitriona Osborne] is only a good thing in our case for culture”.
The Gallery can signpost to Limerick Council Property Management’s Mary Hayes as referee, as with Paul Kavanagh of Grant Thornton.
