The IMMA Archive in the Project Spaces provides a first chance to view material from IMMA’s programme and Collection archive which is currently being digitised as part of the IMMA Collection and Archive Digitisation Project. Made possible with funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the IMMA Collection and Archive Digitisation project is an ambitious two-year venture which began in 2018 and will result in the digitisation of 1600 artworks to complete the creation of a comprehensive online database of the IMMA Collection, and the organisation and digitisation of the museum’s extensive programme and Collection archive.

The IMMA Collection contains works by leading Irish and international artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many of which were acquired following exhibitions at IMMA or commissioned for the unique context of the IMMA’s home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Spanning almost 30 years since IMMA opened and built alongside the Collection, IMMA’s archive contains over one million pages, slides, photographs, audio and film footage, and includes exhibition files, installation plans and proposals, correspondence with artists, education material, reviews and press releases, images and unique audio and film recordings. Together they form a comprehensive and unmatched resource on contemporary art in Ireland, which through this project will be made accessible and safeguarded into the future as it continues to grow.

This work is in preparation for the upcoming exhibition which will be drawn from the IMMA Collection and Archive Digitisation project and will be on show in the East Ground/Gordon Lambert Galleries from 13 December 2019.