The former director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Mr Declan McGonagle, has been drafted in by the board of the Dublin City Arts Centre to lead "a root and branch review" of the organisation.
Mr McGonagle, who stepped down as director of the IMMA in April following a five-month dispute with the board of the museum over the advertising of his post including High court injunction proceedings, will begin his two-year contract with the centre in December.
Yesterday it emerged the City Arts Centre will close for up to two years from December and its staff will be made redundant while a plan for its future is being worked out under Mr McGonagle's leadership.
Coinciding with the changes, the executive director of the centre for 28 years, and one of its founding members, Mr Sandy Fitzgerald, will leave the organisation to pursue other interests.
He will not be replaced until the comprehensive plan for the future direction of the centre is established.
The centre's 12 staff were told of the changes yesterday afternoon. They will be laid off in December.
The changes may include moving the centre from its Moss Street site on the quays. This property was bought by the centre for £260,000 in 1987 and if sold would now be worth millions.
Mr Fitzgerald said no decision had been made yet on whether a move would take place but the matter was being considered and consultants had been engaged to advise the board. "Another major announcement" would be made on this issue in November or December.
"Our interface with the community is more difficult now because we are surrounded by very large commercial properties and the local community itself is suffering hugely as a result of this," he said.
"The positive side is we are in the unique position of having an asset that can actually drive our new ambition.
"The board has been looking intensively at managing this change over the past year because it's going to be a major change."
He said the centre had been "spun around" by the many changes that took place in recent years - including the draining of many motivated volunteers into the full-time workforce - and it had to "root itself again". This could take up to two years and it would be closed in the meantime.
"What we want to be really careful about is holding the issues, values and policies we always held," he said.
Mr McGonagle said he looked forward to the challenge of helping the centre reinvent itself.
"It's like a completely fresh start and that is very energising and very exciting from my point of view," he said. The City Arts Centre, founded in 1973, was one of the first in the State. It organised, directed and ran the Dublin street carnival for four years.
(McGonagle interview Weekend page 4)