DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL is seeking to identify buildings across the city that can be refurbished and developed into artist spaces. 

It comes after artists raised concerns in recent years that they were losing their studios and spaces as commercial development surged in the city. 

It’s hoped 60 new spaces can be created. 

Funding of €9 million will come from the department of arts and culture, the council and from a €3 million philanthropic donation. 

The council said in a press statement that the donor wished to remain anonymous. 

“I’m strongly aware of the pressures that artists and creatives have faced in finding suitable workspaces, especially here in a capital city,” arts and culture minister Catherine Martin said. 

The project, she said, will see 60 artists “provided with turnkey workspaces as well as opportunities to use performance and gallery space and flexible office spaces”.

The former Filmbase building at 2 Curved Street Temple Bar, where the announcement of the initiative was made, is already home to six arts organisations and will take on additional tenants after further refurbishment.

8 and 9 Merchants Quay will also undergo a refurb to provide 21 artists workspaces. The former Eden restaurant in Temple Bar will accommodate six artists, while a vacant site on Bridgefoot Street will house twenty new temporary units.

Workspaces are also being developed at Artane Place in Dublin 5.

More than half of the spaces will be in use before the end of 2024 and the remainder in early 2025, according to the council.