Sinn Féin representative Mark Lohan has said that the planned €200 million redevelopment of Nuns’ Island should include Artists Lofts and exhibition space.
NUI Galway are developing a masterplan for a major redevelopment of Nuns’ Island which will include both cultural and residential elements.
Mark Lohan described the project as “an opportunity to deliver a public library space, artists lofts, and a municipal exhibition space” in the heart of Galway city.
“I have submitted these ideas to the masterplan forum for Nuns’ Island and it is my hope that they will be considered and generate a conversation around delivery,” added Lohan.
“Artists lofts exist in other jurisdictions where state and local laws encourage the subsidised living and working of local artists in a municipality.”
He added that “The nurturing of the creative arts is an investment in the future of the city”.
A public consultation on the proposals made for the Nuns’ Island project was recently undertaken by NUI Galway, with people invited to give feedback on the ideas generated so far.
The masterplan covers 15 acres of the island and will include the redevelopment of a number of unused buildings such as a dilapidated brewery, and the relocation of St. Joseph’s College ‘The Bish’.
“Artists are part of the creative lifebood if Galway city and we must provide the space where they can live, work, and evolve,” the city central Sinn Féin representative said.
He argued that publicly funded loft living and work space is “a viable way to deliver on this goal”.
“The benefit of a thriving artistic community in our city will return to the social and economic life of Galway city in multiples of any investment”.
He added that this infrastructure would be an appropriate physical legacy to the 2020 European Capital of Culture.
Mark Lohan was one of three Sinn Féin city councillors, serving from 2016 to 2016 after being co-opted to take the seat of Anna Marley who was elected to the city central district in 2014 and later resigned.
He and his party colleagues Mairéad Farrell and Cathal Ó Conchúir were all eliminated in the May local elections this year.
For a city with a strong focus on the arts, Galway’s shortage of proper public exhibition spaces has become a topic of serious debate recently.
In recent days there have been many saying that the Festival Gallery on William Street, which was created for this year’s Galway International Arts Festival, should be kept as a permanent exhibition spot.
Lohan said that a municipal exhibition space and a new public library are projects that are also well suited to this masterplan.
