IMMA celebrates its 30th Birthday in 2021 with a new programme IMMA Outdoors, that activates the grounds with artist commissions, events, collaborations, social distanced spaces and café’s, creating a new radically public space for visitors to safely engage with IMMA. The 2021 progrmmme also presents a new museum-wide exhibition showcasing the IMMA Collection and the history of IMMA since 1991, The Narrow Gate of the Hear-and-Now, will open in phases from July to celebrate 30 years of IMMA and the global contemporary.

IMMA Outdoors is a new programme that activates the 48 acres of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and safely connects audiences through artist commissions, performances, talks, workshops, tours, pop-up exhibitions and open-air cafes. Building on the success of last year’s outdoor space The People’s Pavilion and our Social Distancing Circles, IMMA Outdoors will turn the museum’s programme inside out, creating an inspiring programme of activities and events.

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, IMMA: 30 Years of the Global Contemporary is a museum-wide exhibition showcasing the IMMA Collection and the history of the Museum since 1991. Opening in four phases throughout 2021, each phase will signal a new chapter that explores specific themes within IMMA’s 30-year history. This is the first time that the museum has been given over entirely to showing the IMMA Collection.

Commenting on the programme for the birthday year IMMA Director Annie Fletcher said:

In these extraordinary times IMMA Outdoors aims to revitalise the museum’s role to create a public space that is truly open to all, promoting free expression, human connection and civil well-being. We hope that IMMA will become a radically public space for people to enjoy, relax and feel safe in. We also look forward to opening our galleries again to present the exhibition ‘The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now’ in which the full depth of the treasure that is the IMMA Collection can be explored.