12.2 - Achievements

The Council has a number of departments that contribute significantly in addressing cultural activities in the city. The City Arts Office is a developmental unit of Dublin City Council. It supports quality, access, participation, learning and innovation in the arts through collaboration and strategic partnership at local, regional and international levels. It provides a range of assistance to the artistic community including artists work, training and research spaces; residencies; grants, bursaries and commissions. It manages a range of festivals and events in cultural venues and public realm spaces. It also manages the city’s public art programme. It liaises with property owners and artists to create positive relationships and opportunities and is actively involved in increasing new spaces for artists’ studios at a number of locations across the city, on both Council and privately owned land. The Council also has a number of purpose built citizen stakeholder led cultural assets including Axis, the Lab and Dancehouse.

The Hugh Lane Gallery is wholly owned by Dublin City Council, and as well as hosting exhibitions and the permanent collection, runs a wide range of educational programmes, events and lectures which engage the public in a range of ways.

The Council currently operates 23 libraries across the city, offering accessible cultural events within local communities. City Libraries are re-imagining the role of the library in the community beyond their buildings and the lending of books. Libraries offer a sense of place, a local destination for their communities. Whilst literacy is at the heart of the work of the public library, they also provide cultural hubs for wider range of art forms. The many workshops and events for adults and children held in the City Council libraries are delivering a cultural and arts experience to many in their local community. There are plans now in place to expand this approach in future redevelopment of the existing and new libraries; not least the new City Library planned for Parnell Square which will be a key cultural asset to the city when built.

Dublin City Council Culture Company, on behalf of Dublin City Council, run a range of cultural initiatives and buildings across the city including programmes such as Culture Connects, Creative Residencies, Culture Club and the National Neighbourhood. They also manage and provide a range of services for two key Council heritage assets – 14 Henrietta Street and Richmond Barracks, as well as conducting and maintaining a cultural audit, database and map (Culture Near You) of all cultural assets in the city (www.dublincitycouncilculturecompany.ie).

The Events Office, often in partnership with others, supports a great diversity of cultural and artistic led events across the city; bringing culture and the arts to wide audience and enhancing the positive experience of those living, visiting or working in Dublin. These events make great use of the many quality public open spaces and a wide range of non-cultural buildings within the city such as College Green and our city streets for big and small events such as New Year’s Eve and St. Patricks Festival and the Bram Stoker festival. The Parks Department also contribute positively to outdoor cultural projects through the use of parks for events and the Sculpture Dublin initiative which commissions new works in parks and public spaces across the city.

The Council community and sports offices in conjunction with the Area Offices across the city bring about a wide range of locally led events, festivals and cultural experiences for their communities and also assist in the provision of local facilities for use by groups within the area.