IMMA creates the present in a place of history. Our mission is to connect audiences and art, providing an extraordinary space in Ireland where contemporary life and contemporary art connect, challenge and inspire one another. IMMA shares, develops and conserves the Irish National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art for now for the future.
As the Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA is Ireland’s National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art. Our programme comprises exhibitions and projects by leading Irish and international artists, as well as a rich engagement and learning programme providing audiences of all ages the opportunity to explore contemporary art and unlock their creativity. IMMA is home to the National Collection of modern and contemporary Art, now numbering over 4,700 Irish and International artworks, and we make this national resource available through engagement and learning programmes, digital resources and exhibitions at IMMA and nationally. You can browse the Collection here on our website.
IMMA has a large and engaged audience. Some 626,629 people visited IMMA in 2023, the highest number of visitors since the museum opened in 1991, making it the sixth most visited free attraction in Ireland.
IMMA’s programme reimagines ‘the Museum’ as an open and participatory space that connects people to contemporary life through art. Our audience come to IMMA to experience something new and to share knowledge and new thinking. Recent developments in the programme have expanded beyond the gallery space into the full site of IMMA’s home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. A programme of live performance, making, music, food and gardening invites the audience into a direct interaction with creativity, and provides a space for debate, inspiration and participation.
IMMA is enterprising and entrepreneurial and our ambitious programme is funded through our development income raised through our corporate and philanthropic partnerships and commercial income raised on the site from venue hire, retail and catering.
Read the IMMA Strategy 2024 – 2028 below to learn more about our vision for the future.
IMMA is a proud member of L’Internationale, a European confederation of museums, art organisations and universities, founded in 2009. It takes its name from the 19th century worker’s anthem written by Eugène Pottier. L’Internationale was founded to offer an alternative model to globalising art institutions that replicate the structures of multinational powers and their centralised distribution of knowledge. Believing in the power of art to be a platform for the discussion of a renewed social contract, L’Internationale advocates for a new internationalist model that challenges exclusivity and emphasises common heritage through interconnected archives and constituent-led approaches, fostering individual and collective emancipation. For more information, visit www.internationaleonline.org