When the Glucksman Gallery opened its doors in 2004 it made an immediate impact, appearing to have sprung fully formed into its riverside location just inside the main gates of UCC. The following year, the gallery won the award for RIAI Best Public Building in Ireland, one of the first of many recognising its stunning design by Irish architects O’Donnell and Tuomey. Almost two decades later, the awards keep coming – in September, when the Glucksman was awarded the prestigious title of European Art Museum 2022 at a gala ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg, it was a welcome validation of the work that has gone on behind its distinctive facade. For the team at the Glucksman, led by its director Professor Fiona Kearney, it was a moment to be cherished.

‘It was really overwhelming because we were just so thrilled to be shortlisted with so many extraordinary museums,’ she says.

The award demonstrated how the Glucksman punches far above its weight given its scale in comparison to many other museums.

‘When you look at the other museums, we are tiny – our whole staff cohort is probably the size of their social media departments,’ says Fiona. The judges’ citation for the award acknowledged the excellence of the Glucksman’s curatorial work, but Fiona is particularly proud of the fact that it also highlighted the gallery’s outreach programmes which are integral to its continued commitment to inclusion and accessibility.

‘The European Art Museum award really recognises social impact. A lot of that is about the connections and relationships of trust that we have built with communities across Ireland. And in a way, coming home with the award was lovely because we could say to our friends in Edel House [which provides emergency accommodation for women and children], the Traveller community, the LGBTQ+ community and other people whose projects we put forward as part of this award, that this was a shared endeavour.’

The Glucksman faced a huge challenge in November 2009 when flooding caused extensive damage to the basement of the gallery, and a team of conservation experts had to be deployed to save the affected artworks. The gallery’s resilience and innovation once again came into play in its response to the unprecedented impact of Covid, when arts venues all over the country had to shut their doors. The Glucksman mobilised online, winning the Best International Museum Award in the UK Family Friendly Museum awards for its ‘Creativity at Home’ initiative, which provided activities to keep children engaged during lockdown. It also facilitated workshops for families experiencing homelessness and began lending original works of art to rural schools and communities, which evolved into the gallery’s nationwide Art Library programme. Fiona says, however, that nothing could beat having people back in the gallery.

‘We were definitely responsive to what was happening, but once we got to open again, we were like, “Yes”. The schools are back this year, and it is just magic. Particularly when the primary schools come in and it’s their first time and you just think, “Oh yeah, this is brilliant”.’

Fiona says Covid also brought home to people how vital the arts are to our wellbeing.

‘During Covid, people started to think about where you get meaning in your life when you’re suddenly confined to five kilometres. Everyone found points of connection – in physical activity and, equally, in cultural activity and in making. For a lot of people, that opened up their own creativity – which is really exciting, and we see that in how people engage with us now. You would never wish for any of this stuff to happen, but in crisis there is always an opportunity.’

While reaching out beyond the campus is key to the Glucksman’s continued success, the gallery is also fuelled by its continuing creative dialogue with the university and its staff.

‘A lot of people wouldn't necessarily be aware of the extraordinary level of research that happens here on campus, and we can shine a light on that. What artists do brilliantly is they can distil and condense an extraordinary range of ideas into a single image, that can be really rich and open to many interpretations, but it allows you to hold it in your mind in one moment. You don’t have to read the big book, you don’t have to go through the whole scientific argument,’ says Fiona.

"It was wonderful to feel the pride from our university and our colleagues who shared in it because, you know the saying 'you don’t raise a child without a village – you certainly can’t raise a gallery without a campus."

As an example, she points to the collaboration with the Environmental Research Institute at UCC as part of the gallery’s recent Parklife exhibition, which explored the topic of Biodiversity in Contemporary Irish Art.

‘We did a beautiful commission for Parklife with the artist Amber Broughton and our colleagues here in Green Campus, about the very positive story around the biodiversity of our campus and how that has grown in the last number of years through some simple actions taken and supported by the entire university community. The thing that makes me most confident about the Glucksman’s future is this constant generating of ideas and research that happens in our university on a daily basis. We have exhibitions ahead where we are going to be working with Archaeology, the new Radical Humanities Laboratory, as well as with the UCC Futures initiative and the research clusters on children and sustainability. It is so rich; we’re spinning a lot of plates, but the thing is, we'll never run out of ideas.’

As its inaugural director, Fiona has been with the Glucksman on every step of the journey, something that has particular resonance given that the gallery celebrated its 18th birthday in October.

‘It is a coming-of-age in a funny kind of way, particularly in a university context. I think of the 18-year-olds coming through the main gates for the first time, that they have now grown up with the Glucksman. What was so lovely about the award was, it was a bit like, “You’ve graduated now, you’re an adult, you’re a proper big museum”. And it was wonderful to feel the pride from our university and our colleagues who shared in it because, you know the saying “you don’t raise a child without a village” – you certainly can’t raise a gallery without a campus.’

For more information, visit the Glucksman Gallery website.

Photography: Ger McCarthy