Ormston House

Ormston House is a meeting place for the arts in the heart of Limerick City. They opened in 2011 as a Cultural Resource Centre to create new opportunities for artists and arts workers. Their core question is: How can they support artists better? The centre welcomes audiences seeking intimate arts experiences and experimental projects. The three pillars of their programme are artistic ambition, community engagement and professional development.

The programme is co-designed with citizens to promote access and inclusion resulting in cultural events that are responsive to the city and its context. They aim to ground their projects in community wisdom through an open research process and have developed a participatory model of Useful Curating to demonstrate, or make visible, the decision-making process and expertise in artistic practices.

What makes the organisation unique?

Ormston House is based along the main spine of Limerick City. The building was commissioned in the nineteenth century by a beverage merchant to create a landmark location based on the Venetian Palazzo. Ormston House was also the first Supermarket in Limerick from 1961 to 1982 and with its seven-bay arcade of three-metre-high windows provides a highly visible space for their grassroots institution today.

The centre are proud of the relationships of trust they have built with the community and cross-sectoral partners. Together, they have developed the Citizens’ Space, Festival Hub, and international R&R programme (research and residency), as well as their free Membership Scheme for artists. During the inaugural National City of Culture, Ormston House was a key resource organisation for the Visual Arts for which they received a mayoral award for their contribution to cultural life in the city.