AN ART gallery on the University College Cork campus, which incurred substantial damage during flooding in November 2009, has been awarded interim accreditation by the Heritage Council under the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland.
Staff at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery had planned to lodge an application for accreditation in 2009.
However, they had to postpone their bid after water flooded the gallery basement to a height of more than 3.05m (10ft), damaging more than 180 works of art, on the night of November 19th, 2009, when the river Lee burst its banks.
Over the past year the gallery has shared its experience of recovering from the flooding disaster, in particular offering advice on developing disaster plans.
The museum standards programme, the first of its kind in Ireland, is an initiative aimed at improving all aspects of Ireland’s museum practice and in particular raising the standards of care for collections across Irish museums and galleries.
The voluntary programme has attracted involvement from across the cultural spectrum, from national institutions to small, volunteer-led organisations.
Heritage Council chief executive Michael Starrett said that at a time when the importance of tourism could be overestimated, it was imperative we ensured museum standards remained high.
“Accreditation under this programme offers quality assurance to visitors that the museums they are visiting are adhering to a high set of standards in the management of the museum, care of collections and visitor services,” he said.
UCC president Dr Michael Murphy congratulated members of the Glucksman team on achieving accreditation.
“It is wonderful to see the acknowledgement of all that has been achieved by the gallery in the assessors’ report,” Dr Murphy said.
The gallery was officially reopened by President Mary McAleese in January 2010.
The works of art affected by the flooding received emergency conservation, and as a result of this and ongoing treatment the majority were saved.
Works in storage at the time of the flooding included pieces by influential artists such as Hughie O’Donoghue, Louis le Brocquy and Martin Gale.