Trinity’s Science Gallery to reopen next year

€300,000 a year will be provided by the government for the gallery for the next three to four years

Trinity’s science gallery is to reopen next year in a “totally reimagined” format, the Business Post has revealed.

The gallery was forced to close in February after a decline in grants and philanthropic  income since 2017, which caused financial difficulties.

The Sunday Independent reported in August that the gallery had €1.65 million in debt in the four years before Trinity decided to close it. Gerard McCarthy, an accounting professor who is the gallery’s interim director, told Board that the gallery had been in “a financial crisis for a number of years”.

Minister Simon Harris has said that enough progress has been made to allow for a reopening in summer 2023.

He said: “[Trinity] has made it clear that the current model for the gallery is financially unsustainable due to changes in the philanthropic funding environment, which, if left unaddressed, would have left the college exposed to significant ongoing financial liabilities”.

“In a recent statement, the provost of [Trinity] noted that the gallery’s current operational model had run its course, there is a need for the gallery to be totally reimagined, and that time is required to build a sustainable way forward”.

Harris also added that his department had been working with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and Trinity itself, to find a way to reopen the gallery.

The government will provide the Science Gallery with €300,000 a year in funding for the next three to four years.

It is as yet unclear whether the Gallery will be owned exclusively by College or made available to others through a third-party tender.