Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

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The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery is the venue of permanent and temporary art exhibitions.
Their permanent collection includes paintings by Irish and international artists from the 17th century to the present day.
Admission is free.
Disabled access.

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The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery displays its permanent collection of mostly 19th and 20th century Irish art as well as regular and diverse current exhibitions. Recent exibitions have included James Barry and work by Picasso and Rembrandt. The building is a historic one, originally built as the Cork Custom House in 1724. A relatively small gallery, a visit here is stimulating without being exhausting.

The Sculpture Hall, immediately to the left of the main entrance is a great place to chill out and you will even find some plaster casts of work by the great Italian sculptor, Canova. The cafe on the ground floor serves lunch as well as morning and afternoon snacks. This is definitely one of the most aesthetically pleasing places you will ever drink a cup of coffee in. I use it all the time to meet up with friends for a coffee and a chat but I would not recommend it for lunch. In my opinion it's overpriced and the portions are way too small.

This is one of my favourite places in Cork. When I'm stressed I go and wander in the Sculpture Room and then upstairs to check out some of my favourite paintings in the permanent collection. Recent additions to the gallery are portraits of Cork born actress Fiona Shaw and our very own footballer-terrible, Roy Keane.

The gallery and cafe are open until 5.30pm Monday to Saturday. Closed Sundays

FREE ADMISSION

THe Gallery houses collections by some of Ireland's finest masters from Jack B. Yeats to Nathaniel Grogan, James Barry, William Orpen and Daniel Maclise, and sculptor John Hogan. It is housed in a mid-18th century building that was originally Cork's Custom House. I spent almost a full day just absorbing all of the glorious art housed within its walls