In the late 1980s, the Crimea Banqueting Hall within the Irish Financial Services Centre site on the Custom House Quay was mooted as a potential venue for an Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). The other candidate to house the museum was the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, which, for various reasons, including pragmatic ones, was eventually chosen. Now approaching its 10th birthday, IMMA is thriving.
Meanwhile, the Banqueting Hall, so-called because, in the 19th century, it was the venue for an enormous banquet for Irish veterans of the Crimea, is still there, its magnificent cast-iron components slowly deteriorating, awaiting a decision on its future role in the overall development of the docklands. That role might yet be as an art gallery, and, if so, it may be due in no small measure to two artists who have varied links with Ireland, the painters Sean Scully and Hughie O'Donoghue.
Although he grew up in England and now lives and works for the most part in Manhattan, Scully, one of the world's foremost painters, is greatly attached to Ireland, where he was born and spent his first few years. His works are to be found in most of the major contemporary art museums in the world. But he is proud of his Irish identity and keen to be recognised as an Irish artist so, around 1996, he first mooted the idea of donating a major group of his works to the State, providing suitable accommodation could be found for them. The potential donation is understood to comprise 30 large paintings (much of his work is on a very large scale), 30 pastels, 30 watercolours, an archive edition of all his print work to date, and all books and catalogues published on his work.
This would amount to a major concentration of his work, and an invaluable reference facility for scholars and students as well as the general public. There is also the consideration that significant collections of any one artist's works tend to attract other donors. After various inconclusive discussions, nothing concrete has emerged. Why has the State risked losing this major donation of world-class art? Ostensibly because there is, apparently, no suitable place to exhibit it. Manchester-born O'Donoghue similarly established a formidable international reputation before moving to Ireland a few years ago. Over a 10-year period, from 1986, he completed a remarkable commission for an American patron, Craig Baker, which involved creating a contemporary treatment of one of the central themes of European painting, the Passion of Christ.
These hugely ambitious works address major issues, testing the viability of the great religious and secular, humanist preoccupations of a central strand of Western art. A major part of this commission, in the form of 14 very large paintings, was offered on long-term loan to the Irish State, with the possibility of permanence, on condition that a suitable venue could be found to house and display them.
The paintings are on such a scale that finding a suitable venue is a much more formidable proposition than it might sound. Currently, five of them are hanging in what was the racquet-ball court at Aras an Uachtarain, used by the President, Mrs
McAleese, for meeting groups of visitors. These paintings can also be viewed as part of the organised tours of An Aras.
Others are currently on temporary exhibition in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. But, laudable as all this is, it does not amount to the kind of access outlined in the original proposition.
Where these offers might coincide is in the Crimea Banqueting Hall, in stack A on Georges Dock. Strategically situated on the river, close to the heart of the city, but also symbolically linking north and south, the Hugh Lane Gallery, the National Gallery and, to the west, IMMA, the hall boasts a large integral space, which is the one thing that IMMA, with its domestically scaled sequences of rooms and corridors, does not have.
The Banqueting Hall is part of the original IFSC site developed by the then Custom House Docks Development Company Ltd (CHDDCL). Since 1988, it has been designated a museum. The idea was that it should serve as a cultural focus at the site, drawing in visitors, especially at weekends. To this end, shops and restaurants were also envisaged as part of the development. Since it was decided that IMMA should be located at Kilmainham, other possibilities have been proposed for the Banqueting Hall, including that it be a science museum, an idea supported by Discovery, the Dublin Interactive Science Centre Project.
There is also the idea that it should become a museum of the Irish experience, not unlike the role proposed for Belfast's Ulster Museum and, more recently, Dermot Desmond's Ecosphere. Plans for a centre of the performing arts south of the river do not impinge on stack A's designation as a museum.
The developer, now the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, stands to gain if and when the building becomes a museum, by virtue of a licence agreement with the Custom House Dock tenants.
One problem with offers of works such as those of Scully and O'Donoghue is that, in the arts as in other areas, there is a vital distinction between capital and current expenditure. The Labour government in Britain has incurred criticism for investing lottery funds in cultural projects solely in terms of capital costs, without regard to subsequent operating costs. If you create an institution, who is going to run it and pay for running it?
In this regard, it seems to make sense that, if the Banqueting Hall is to be reborn as an art museum, it should come under the auspices of an existing institution rather than require an entirely new structure in terms of management, administration and identity. IMMA is the logical candidate, and apparently the idea was discussed some time ago. But the Hugh Lane, while it is a municipal and not a national institution, is another possibility, given that the building has the potential to be a huge asset to the city.
The argument most frequently voiced in opposition to the idea of turning the Banqueting Hall into a gallery is that Dublin already has more than enough galleries. It is true that, on the face of it, the city has never been better served by contemporary art galleries. IMMA is a success story. The substantial RHA Gallagher Gallery looks, for the first time, as if it will fulfill its potential as a temporary exhibitions venue. The Hugh Lane is celebrating its acquisition of the Francis Bacon studio. The Douglas Hyde Gallery has its own particular niche. But things are not quite so straightforward.
For example, during the summer a commercial gallery owner in the city centre remarked that he had a steady stream of visitors arriving at his gallery, asking where they might see a representative collection of contemporary and 20th-century Irish art. There was, he said, nowhere to send them. Certainly, there are fragments of such a collection to be found in displays at the Hugh Lane, IMMA and even the National Gallery. But those hopeful visitors will sound familiar to many people who work in galleries, and they are worth bearing in mind when the idea that Dublin might need more gallery space is casually dismissed.
ONE direct effect of the existence of IMMA is that collectors have been inspired to place their collections there. Consequently, even with the new galleries located in the deputy master's house, due to reopen early next year, IMMA could still use more exhibition space. Elsewhere, with Patrick Murphy as director, the RHA Gallagher Gallery, while for the first time fulfilling its potential as a contemporary arts venue, is in a formative stage, with the issues of funding and much-needed additional space still to be addressed.
As for the Hugh Lane, two potential solutions to its acute space problems have been proposed. "Our problem is that we are not on a greenfield site," director Barbara Dawson points out. "In terms of our location, we are very limited in terms of what we can do." One costly and potentially controversial plan envisages building upwards onto the existing galleries.
The other - less expensive and more straightforward - entails colonising the adjoining National Ballroom. Dublin Corporation has now committed itself to pursuing this option.
The plan will, says Barbara Dawson, provide an additional 1,100 square metres in exhibition space and about 300 square metres in storage space. That is an improvement but will not, in the long term, be the solution to the gallery's space problems. Yet there is a logic to the Hugh Lane and the city playing a role in stack A. It could contribute to solving its space problems.
Given that the Government's coffers are full and that the docklands development is in full swing, we are hardly likely to again encounter conditions as favourable for securing the future of the Banqueting Hall as an art gallery. As such, it would be a significant embellishment to the city and the country. With the further incentive of winning a significant collection of Scully's work, and the chance of providing a suitable location for exhibiting O'Donoghue's Passion paintings, not to do so seems positively churlish - particularly when all that is lacking, it seems, is the political will.