Show and tell: the art of running a gallery

How do museums decide what to display? Should they charge? And what are their dream exhibitions? Eight directors give us the view from the top

People queue to pay into galleries and museums around the world. Why not in Ireland?

Most of the eight museum and art-gallery directors we speak to – responsible for the National Gallery of Ireland, the Ulster Museum, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, among others – are wary of admission fees. They point out that charges can restrict access or deter visitors, and may cost more to collect than they bring in. “In my previous museum” – Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, in Germany – “there were 36 different forms of reduced entry available,” says Sean Rainbird, director of the National Gallery.

But they also believe that the right exhibition could be charged for. “People primarily queue to see the iconic master collections or blockbuster exhibitions, for which they have to pay,” says Sarah Glennie of Imma.

Some of the best-known museums internationally, including the Louvre, in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, charge for entry – and still draw enormous crowds. “People queue to pay here too,” says Tim Cooke of National Museums Northern Ireland, although the example he cites is Age of the Dinosaur, its summer blockbuster exhibition.

Helen Carey of Limerick City Gallery of Art highlights the psychology at play. “At some deep level, I think, Irish people don’t accept that art costs money and artistic training costs money. The perceived tax advantage to artists doesn’t help, as people think they’ve paid for this art provision already, between tax and what they think artists don’t pay.”

If money were no object, what exhibition would the directors most like to mount?

“A thematic show looking at the contribution of Ireland, north and south, to the world,” says Cooke. “It would cover art, literature, music, sport, religion, invention, agriculture, food, drink, theatre, dance and politics. Would you come?”

Glennie would “initiate a series of commissions for the gallery and beyond, by leading Irish and international contemporary artists.”

It’s the National Gallery that is living its dream, “setting Vermeer in the context of his times and next to his main rivals in an exhibition we plan for 2017. This is one exhibition I am very excited about,” says Rainbird.

What percentage of a gallery’s collection is on display, and how do the directors decide what to show and what to store?

The Hugh Lane shows between 20 and 30 per cent of its collection, regularly rotating what is on view.

With 70 per cent of its building closed for refurbishment, very little of the vast National Gallery collection is on show currently, and “even fully open, only a small part of the collection is on display. The remedy is to change the displays over time, to create a dialogue between the works and the public, and to find new contexts in which to show works,” says Rainbird.

In Sligo you’ll see about 10 per cent of the Model’s holdings – mainly the Niland Collection – and in Cork about a third of the Crawford’s. Imma shows about 8 per cent of its pieces, plus works in the national touring programme.

Limerick City Art Gallery has collection shows throughout the year, as does the Royal Hibernian Academy, in its dedicated Dr Tony Ryan Gallery. At the Ulster Museum the proportion on show is under 10 per cent, but Cooke points out that some of the collection is there for research and archive purposes rather than for display.

All of this makes online archives important. The Hugh Lane has a particularly good online archive, as do the Ulster Museum and the National Gallery. The Crawford’s, frustratingly, is not searchable. Imma has been working for some time on cataloguing its collection.

Do the directors regard the market as a force for good or bad in the art world?

As museums are often priced out of the running when it comes to buying work by our most famous artists, many of the directors are ambivalent about the art market. Most would agree with Glennie that “the market is an important element in the overall ecosystem that makes up a sustainable, vibrant art world”, but Carey believes there is a “skewed dominance of the market, going from healthy to imbalanced”, as it plays with the value of art “like a cat with a trapped mouse”.

Rainbird suggests it creates dynamism in the art world, although Seamus Kealy of the Model in Sligo has seen its mechanisms promote an “incredible amount of derivative art nonsense – pastiche”. Patrick T Murphy of the Royal Hibernian Academy regards it as “becoming more and more separated from the making of art”; Barbara Dawson of Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane concludes that “the market is a fact, always has been. It is the ability to be able to read it, as well as go beyond it, that is important.”

What are the biggest surprises the directors have encountered in their roles?

The most surprising aspect of the directors’ answers is how positive they seem. Murphy cites a double-digit percentage increase in attendance at the RHA, and Cooke says he is surprised by visitors’ response to the refurbished Ulster Museum – more than 1.7 million people have come since 2009.

All this positivity is summed up by Dawson, who points to “the can-do determination of all. In the arts, it has brought forward spirited initiatives, new projects and collaborations.”

Nevertheless, while Kealy notes the “increased tendency for institutions and organisations to collaborate more and share resources”,

Carey, who had been working as a freelance curator, has the most recent experience of life outside the supportive atmosphere of an institution. “In Limerick I don’t have to defend working in the visual arts in Ireland. It feels very much like the leading art form, so it’s great – and in Ireland especially surprising – to feel that conversations start from a positive point.”

Why be a director? Don’t curators have more fun?

At the RHA and in Limerick and Sligo, the roles are combined, and Murphy points out that the distinction is “a bit artificial, as every financial decision has implications for the artistic programme and every artistic decision has financial consequences”. Carey adds, “A healthy tension must exist between the two functions: artistic ambition has to challenge a framework always.”

Peter Murray of Crawford Art Gallery Cork says that curators “without doubt” have the best of it. Dawson warns, “Beware of accepting perceptions as realities! Working with artists and the visual arts presents its own sets of challenges, but the creativity involved is without doubt stimulating and rewarding.”

What is the biggest challenge the directors face?

The overwhelming response is to do with money. “State support has to be earned,” says Murphy. Most allude, too, to maintaining and engaging with audiences as cuts continue. Rainbird, in the thick of the National Gallery refurbishment, also addresses organisational issues: “We are examining the structure of the staff, and doing so with a view to greater co-operation with Imma and the Crawford Art Gallery, as part of the Government’s reform agenda.”

Most gallery directors anywhere would agree with Murray’s response that the biggest challenge is “fitting everything into the day”.

If the directors could show a visitor only one work from their collections or current exhibitions, what would it be?

Few found they could settle on just one piece. At Imma, Glennie would lead you to its James Coleman video works. Murray would show Roderic O’Conor’s Red Rocks Near Pont-Aven, which came to the Crawford as part of a donation of work owned by Allied Irish Banks.

Rainbird would take you on a route, “cannily, past all the other paintings” to Picasso’s Still-Life With a Mandolin.

You’d see Jack Yeats’s On Through the Silent Lands – just back from a year on display at 10 Downing Street – at the Ulster Museum, and you’ll see Etienne Zack’s diptych in the Model’s atrium.

Why don’t more people go to galleries? After all, they’re still free

If the directors are positive about the surprises they have found in their work, they’re Pollyannaish about visitor numbers. They’re “healthy” in Limerick and “growing at the RHA by about 12 per cent per annum”. The Crawford gets 100,000 visitors a year and “would find it difficult to cope with higher numbers, given our present resources”. The Ulster Museum has had “its busiest summer yet”, and about 700,000 people will have been to the National Gallery by the end of the year.

Why aren’t our artists national heroes, and why, for example, do the visual arts fight for column inches in the newspapers and get buried in late-night slots on TV?

The positivity masks old problems. “Lack of awareness and knowledge can create barriers to people visiting galleries,” says Glennie. Kealy notes perennial solutions of education, community engagement and public outreach. Dawson has the final say: “All are very welcome, and millions do visit our museums and galleries in Ireland. They play a key role in our cultural identity. But some people prefer cycling, football, walking, the cinema . . . Sensibilities and interests vary.”

The directors Who are the leaders of our galleries?

Helen Careyis director of Limerick City Gallery of Art ( gallery.limerick.ie)

Tim Cookeis director of National Museums Northern Ireland, including the Ulster Museum ( nmni.com).

Barbara Dawsonis director of Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane ( hughlane.ie)

Sarah Glennieis director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art ( imma.ie)

Seamus Kealyis director of the Model, in Sligo ( themodel.ie)

Patrick T Murphyis director of the Royal Hibernian Academy, in Dublin ( rhagallery.ie)

Peter Murrayis director of Crawford Art Gallery Cork ( crawfordartgallery.ie)

Sean Rainbirdis director of the National Gallery of Ireland ( nationalgallery.ie)