Tourism minister Catherine Martin has announced a funding allocation of €171,850 for local and regional museums across the country through the Regional Museum Exhibitions Scheme 2024.
The grants aim to enhance the cultural offerings of museums, improve accessibility to museum experiences, and position museums as valuable tourism resources within their communities and regions.
Sixteen projects will receive funding this year, including initiatives such as the Cork Butter Museum’s exhibition case refurbishment for displaying bog butter samples and Galway City Museum’s upgrade of a 3D model depicting a 15th-16th century tower house in Co Galway.
These grants support museums in preserving and showcasing cultural heritage, facilitating educational experiences, and contributing to the tourism appeal of their respective localities and regions.Catherine Martin said:
“Our local and regional museums are an extremely important resource for accessing culture and heritage in towns and villages across the country, they provide a sense of community and place by celebrating a collective heritage and offer a great way to learn about the history of the local area.
“My Department’s work over the years in funding projects under this scheme has allowed cultural bodies to continue to enhance the presentation of their exhibitions and improve the cultural offering to the communities they serve.
Our local and regional museums collect, preserve and store objects and materials of religious, cultural and historical value while providing a source of entertainment and wonder. These museums help to preserve and promote our cultural heritage and without them, a lot of our history and culture would have been lost over the years.”
- Cavan Reimagining the Cavan County Museum Galleries Reimagining the Cavan County Museum Galleries – project to update, reorganize and redisplay some of the current exhibitions in the museum. The aim is to maximise space usage in exhibition areas, improve the narrative of the exhibitions and improve overall accessibility of some of the exhibitions. €8,938
- Cork Butter Museum Exhibition Case Refurbishment The project is intended to make an exhibition case in the Butter Museum suitable for the housing of samples of bog butter for display €6,750
- Cork SIRIUS: Past/Present/Future – Archive and Collection This project consists of producing an exhibition exploring the SIRIUS archive and collection. SIRIUS holds works and documents that engage with Sirius Art centre’s building and environs, the historical town of Cobh. The purpose is to prepare them for public fruition, which involves cataloguing and studying them, and securing their proper conservation and storage. In the exhibition, these items are combined with newly commissioned works that respond to the specific themes of Sirius Art centre’s location, including trade, diasporic identities, colonial narratives, and ecology. €4,875
- Donegal Equipment for Donegal County Museum Exhibition Programme The Museum organises an annual exhibition and associated events programme and in 2024/2025 will develop 2 new in-house exhibitions; the first will shine a spotlight on the lives of Donegal women after independence; the second will focus on the working lives of people who emigrated from Donegal to Scotland between 1940 and 1990. €8,250
- Dublin Foundations to Future Exhibition The GAA Museum will present its new exhibition entitled ‘Foundations to Future’ which will explore the foundations, growth and future of all Gaelic Sports including Football, Hurling, LGFA, Camogie, Rounders and Handball. This will be a brand new exhibition, the first in the temporary exhibition space since 2020, and the first major exhibition for the museum since the end of the pandemic. €4,500
- Dublin MoLI Website Redesign & QR Code Translations The redesign of the MoLI website, featuring the redevelopment of existing resources alongside new components that will enhance the user experience for both domestic and international visitors, audiences with accessibility needs and remote users across Ireland and beyond. The redevelopment will improve user experience and increase engagement of those visiting MoLI onsite but equally those unable to visit the museum but want to connect with Irish literature through online resources. €11,272
- Dublin Abbey Theatre Poster Design Exhibition Marking 120 years of the Abbey Theatre, the Museum will curate an exhibition celebrating theatre poster design from the 70s and 80s. The posters are important historical and social artefacts that represent a changing time in design and the representation of our national theatre, as well as developments in printing technology. The digital and physical exhibition will explore the role of the theatre poster in bringing the performance beyond the stage into the public domain. €14,438
- Dublin Ulysses VR Experience Ulysses VR consists of a virtual reality immersive experience that allows visitors to explore James Joyce’s 1904 Dublin and encourages visitors to engage with the contents of the book in a visual, fun and interactive way. €1,800
- Galway Keepers of the Gael at Galway City Museum – Exhibition Upgrade The Keepers of the Gael exhibition at Galway City Museum explores Gaelic society and culture in Ireland between 1200-1600 AD. The project includes two upgrades to the existing exhibition: A 3D model of a tower house based on the tower house at Kilclooney, Miltown, Co Galway, dated to the 15th-16th century, home of a bardic family of O’Higgins and An audio visual display on the Book of the O’Lees (Book of Hy-Brasil)a touch screen interpretive guide. €15,000
- Kerry Women of Literature This project will highlight and celebrate the contributions of female writers from Kerry by researching their lives and works and creating a multidisciplinary exhibition to showcase their impact on literature and culture. It aims to promote gender equality in cultural representation and enrich the museum’s offerings by diversifying the range of writers featured. €14,887
- Limerick Flying in the right direction: A re-branding of museum signage A re-branding of the museum (and exhibitions) to incorporate the new development which launched this past September. Incorporating signage into Irish where possible will help in attracting more Irish schools and the incorporation of braille will provide accessibility and inclusivity to those who are visually-impaired. €14,800
- Limerick Dunraven 200 Exhibition Dunraven 200 will celebrate the major contribution made by the Earls of Dunraven to the heritage, culture and public life of Limerick City and County over the past two centuries. To celebrate this rich legacy, Limerick Museum will stage an exhibition in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, which will officially open during Heritage Week 2024. Dunraven 200 will be a collaboration with three major Limerick stakeholders: Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick Museum and the Dunraven family. €8,250
- Limerick Creepy Crawlies: Love/ Hate This exhibition uses objects from the Hunt Museum to initiate conversations around biodiversity- Creepy Crawlies – and their vital role in our lives. Through interactive displays, educational packages, and immersive experiences, this exhibition fosters a deeper understanding of these earth’s creatures, their habitats, and their profound impact on our well-being. This exhibition will enhance the appeal of Limerick as a cultural tourism destination for family groups over the tourist season and into the school year. €15,000
- Mayo Patita Bourke Nicholson – An artist’s life in retrospect. The project will gather and celebrate the work of Patita Bourke Nicholson, of Enniscoe House who painted family and country life in the late 20th century. The exhibition will create the means to collect, document, preserve and present the story of a woman artist born in Ballycastle. The exhibition and outreach events will examine the recent past and local history through the stories revealed in these detail laden depictions of the area. €13,090
- Tipperary Visual Emotion: A Survey of 40 Years of Photography Exhibition Tipperary Museum of Hidden History is planning an exhibition titled Visual Emotion: A Survey of 40 Years of Photography by professional and award winning photographer John D Kelly’. The Museum’s exhibition will incorporate traditional methods of framing photographs, contemporary hanging arrangements and industrial screens arranged on a large free standing metal structure which will highlight Johns fluid movements within his sporting compositions. €15,000
- Waterford The Irish Museum of Time Phase 2 Extension of the Irish Museum of Time into adjacent Central Hall, to house a cutting-edge interactive presentation of the story of timekeeping through the millennia, identified as lacking in the existing museum, an AI hologram & new exhibits including ‘Waterford Time’ (4 or 6 Waterford-made timepieces, recently acquired from fundraising) and ‘Cuckoo Time’ (the twenty best cuckoo clocks in the world). €15,000
