Sligo County Council is advancing plans for the development of a new cultural quarter for Sligo, which will include a new museum, and extended and refurbished Model & Niland Gallery. A new civic space will host outside performances and will be linked to the city and the river through new pedestrian walkways.The museum will be a landmark building close to the historic Green Fort and will form a prominent feature within the city. The two storied building will have an elevated section looking out over the city and harbour.

The museum will house and present innovative and imaginative exhibitions based on the landscape of the Northwest - exploring the unique characteristics of the landscape and the societies that lived there. It will be oriented to the local and regional population as well as to the tourist and visitor igniting curiosity and interest in our past and in history as a dynamic and ongoing story. It will pursue county wide educational programmes and be a focus for learning for a range of diverse audiences from schools to third level institutions to community groups to archaeological and heritage groups etc. it will also be equipped with state of the art conservation and research facilities. Project director Bartley Gavin said work will start on the first phase in November with the new Sligo Museum and the extended Niland Gallery expected to open by Autumn 2009. Planning permission was granted in 2006.

‘We expect the development of cultural facilities to be a driving force in the success of the city,’ said Mr. Gavin. He said the project was expected to boost Sligo’s reputation as a cultural tourism destination but was also designed to improve facilities for local people in a region steeped in archaeological treasures and culture.

Work on the second phase will be built as a public private partnership, is expected to begin in mid-2009. The new two-storey museum is to be located between the Mall and Connaughton Road on a site behind the Niland Gallery, currently occupied by a 340-space car park. A new library building is also planned for the Mall and Mr. Gavin said that a ’cultural corridor’ will link the museum, gallery, and library to the Yeats building in the city. Mr. Gavin said that the new museum which will have floor space of 2,500sq m will house both temporary and permanent exhibitions with the facilities to include a lecture hall, education rooms, a conservation suite, cataloguing area, a restaurant/café and a workshop/isolation room. ‘We expect to work closely with the archaeological department in Sligo institute of Technology,’ said Mr. Gavin. ‘We have also had discussions with the National Museum and hope that the new museum will be of national as well as regional significance.’

The refurbishment and extension to the Niland Gallery, a former model school built in the 1850’s, will provide improved gallery space, a new blackbox performance area and eight artists’ studios.

Sligo County Council carried out a major consultation process, involving meetings with individual groups associated with heritage in the region and with groups and bodies involved in developing the region. There was also public consultation events throughout the county, which provided the general public with a chance to contribute to the form and theme of the museum.

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