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THE NATIONAL COLLEGE of Art and Design (NCAD) has called on the government to acknowledge Dublin 8 as a leading cultural and creative quarter.
Opening an international design conference in Dublin today, NCAD Head of Design Professor Alex Milton said the lead role played by Dublin 8 in Ireland’s creative economy must be officially acknowledged.
“In order to compete internationally, we need to start proactively showcasing and promoting our creative and cultural talent,” he said.
In the UK, the creative industries are worth more than £36 billion a year; they generate £70,000 every minute for the UK economy; and they employ 1.5 million people. The reason they’re thriving is because the government there is proactively supporting these industries through financial incentives, promotion at home and abroad, and reducing unnecessary regulations.
Milton also said that “poor design choices” had been made during the Celtic Tiger years but ‘design thinking’ has a significant role to play in our economic recovery.
“Now, in this period of resetting and not simply recession, it’s vital that crisis be turned to opportunity – that we learn from our mistakes and prioritise ‘quality over quantity’,” he said.
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Would be nice to see the rejuvenation of that area continue.
Still a hole
Your face is a hole
They need to do something about the blatant drug dealing and muggings not to mention the bikes being stolen..
I grew up in Dublin 8 and went shopping on Thomas street every weekend, but it’s gotten worse over the years.
He’s right Dublin 8 is by and large awful and badly in need of regeneration.
Kenneth and other commentators,
The area is in an on-going process of regeneration and, without NCAD, the design companies and artist’s studios that are located there, the area would be in a much worse state.
Elaine,
I appreciate that you grew up in that area, but I know it well as it is now and the drug-dealing etc is no worse than other inner city area. I have worked in NCAD and I have never heard of a really bad incident in the area. In fat, I would say that the local people are very tolerant and welcoming of the student population.
Don’t get me wrong it’s great to see all the students in Thomas street, it’s a nice change.. I can’t comment on any other inner city area as I don’t know of them but I do know of Thomas street, and where yes there is some characters to be seen but it does need to be better policed and give the place a chance to thrive.
Hi Elaine,
Yes, it s a welcome change and, yes, the area could do with a bit more attention, but most of the students consider themselves pretty lucky to be there. Whilst I could not describe the area as thriving, the same could be said of many areas of Dublin. Most people are surviving, rather than thriving. But I love that area and am happy to have taught there, and I am grateful to the local community for their acceptance and perseverance.
I’m sure the local poulation are grateful to look into a glass rather than ivory tower. You may call me a dreamer perhaps someday our children will study fine art together. Untill then enjoy the colour and let it inspire you, we’ll get there as you said the natives are friendly perhaps someday we’ll be trainable.
We shall contiune to perserve particularly the next time I take my sister and nephew to your final year students exhibition while a member of your staff gratefully follows us around. I blend in but my sister is fond of her tracksuits and hoops.
Haha that’s gas, Maby you should get her to wear some strange colour dress an bright pink tights, she will fit right in then..
I do understand where your coming from though, they put an art collage in Thomas street but look dodgy if the locals want to view the exhibits..
I do like the area and it’s difference compared to the generic norm. Cultural though the juries out on that one.
Keith Wizzy,
It depends on how you define cultural. Loads of design areas/hubs around that area and vacant buildings that NCAD students have taken over and put to good use. It is just not as obvious to many others as these students are self-organising and there is no money for publicity.
Did he give any examples or are they so obvious I should already know?
I though the plan was to move NCAD out to UCD anyway? And NCAD was to turn into trendy apartments.
Dublin desperately needs an area that can be designated for cheaper rents for studios to rent, both artists and designers. Studio space is far too expensive, hence why there are practically no artists in Dublin and they are all in Sligo or Galway.
Either pick a new area like the docks/port area or maybe once and for all sort out all the wasted building space above so many central Dublin streets that sit empty, apart from the Spar on the ground floor. These areas are dead at night as well because of this. But larger studio space is still needed for many disciplines. There should be no shortage of NAMA properties to pick from and turn into studios or design centers.
You want tax payers money to be spent so people can paint pretty little pictures while people all over the country have to wait months to get surgery done
No, you pick a run down brown field area and all the creative activity brings up the whole area and creates jobs and within a decade you have a thriving business district and trendy valuable apartments.
Temple Bar after all used to be run down studios before they were kicked out – and London, Berlin, New York and every major city uses the same methods to develop its run down areas- hence why they have thriving creative industries creating loads of jobs and bringing in tons of taxes and drawing in tourists by the shed load to their galleries and shops.
Temple Bar is a great example. It wasn’t magicked by government fiat into a cultural quarter. It grew up spontaneously while politicians were fighting about whether to turn it into a bus station, so no one bothered the short term tenants. It started to lose its vitality when councillors turned up looking for votes in “regeneration”.
Culture and government are like a bear dancing with an ant. The ant figures out that it’s a bad idea long before the bear does.
The area reminds me of Spitalfields in London.
In major cities artistic types move into low rent areas and are followed by the wealthy untalented trendies. I don’t think it’s the job of government ,or do you want TD’s, deciding who is artistically worthy of cheap rent?
kkkjsjsksk,
Nonsense on so many levels. If you think that the artists and designers at NCAD do nothing than other than paint pretty little pictures, then you are totally out of touch. Why don’t you actually broaden your mind and read Alex Milton’s article? No industry, and I really do mean no industry, survives, flourishes and innovates without creative thinking and that is why design and arts students are trained to do. Irish designers, and artists, have been exported all around the globe and are contributing their valuable skills elsewhere – skills that are badly needed here. Most NCAD students have a couple of part-time jobs to subsidise their study, they are well-versed in applying for funding, are encouraged to develop their critical thinking skills and well-able to articulate themselves. They are not encouraged to passive learners, rather to proactive creators. Unfortunately, once qualified they leave in droves because their valuable skills are not recognised here but are recognised elsewhere.
Emily Elephant,
Spot on, Temple Bar is a great example. Initially a run-down area which was made available for artist’s studios and then grew into the “cultural” quarter which ended up squeezing the creative types out.
Marko Burns,
Actually there are still plenty of cheap studio spaces in Dublin, mostly organised by art and design students themselves and in based in areas that many others wouldn’t bother themselves to visit. I sympathise with your observations about the empty spaces above Spars etc. and on that point Smithfield is a good case in point. NCAD students organised taking over a vacant space there and held their end of year shows there. also Block T is based there, an excellently run artist space, and brings much needed vibrancy and colour to the local area. Although, you are right, there is much more that could be done with other vacant spaces around the city.
Thomas street has amazing potential. Hard to believe buildings like this are just sitting there. I’d love to move the studio there if I could. http://instagram.com/p/fscmIjh1Pg/
What’s so amazing about and brick building? There’s hundreds of thousands of them around Ireland.
Since Alex Milton is speaking of poor design choices he should look at the NCAD gallery in the picture, looks horrible and totally out of context next to the buildings beside it!
Or he is just trying to get some publicity for the college….
Graham,
Why does it have to be an either or situation? Read Alex Milton’s article, he makes some valid points, some of which I agree with and others not, but at least he is opening a debate on the issue. And why shouldn’t he be publising the college? Like any other college, it is also a business and NCAD is a business/institution that does a pretty fine job.
You know, every person that visits the Guinness Brewery on foot, ie just about every tourist that comes to Ireland, walks along Thomas Street and past NCAD. Plenty of ok places to stop off and have a cuppa and a fairly decent sandwich. Really, try it some time, Dublin 8 is not the area it was a few years ago.
On this point I have to disagree,
I worked in the area for a while too and the tourists were afraid of there life in Thomas street, you wouldn’t walk it alone I tell you..
Meanwhile, fifty metres down the road, winos and beggars are drinking and pissing all over the pavement outside Lidl !. That’s some culture alright !
Verbal Kint,
No different to Henry Street or Grafton Street then! And what, exactly, do you mean by culture?
pfff rather if they moved to the wealthy suburbs
NCAD a blight on D8
Why?
I’ve never once walked by there and looked in the window and thought to myself that what was on display was good. Always a heap of pointless crap.
Sad….. The computer did all the thinking…..
Please leave it as a he so my studio rent doesn’t go up!!!
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