Public funding for the Wax Museum

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ClubMan

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Just heard Kay Murray, the manager of the Wax Museum which is moving from Granby Row to Smithfield sometime soon, on NewsTalk calling on Brian Cowen to get his hands out of his pockets and give them some public funding! Unbelievable!!! :rolleyes:
 
Could this have something to do with the FF connections of [broken link removed] - owner of said institution?
 
I'd guess that Donie is seeing people getting grants for "artistic" exhibits of unmade bed/dead sheep floating in bath of acid/imitation body part sitting on chair/etc and asking himself "why can't I get my hands on some of this lolly?" :)
 
On the subject of public funding for artwork in public spaces- isn't some of the crap that's put up adjacent to our motorways just awful?
 
Just heard Kay Murray, the manager of the Wax Museum which is moving from Granby Row to Smithfield sometime soon, on NewsTalk calling on Brian Cowen to get his hands out of his pockets and give them some public funding! Unbelievable!!!
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Madame Tussauds in London charge a fortune and is always packed. It can do this because London has a steady stream of Tourists and Madame Tussauds has an international reputation.

The Irish Wax Museum is astonishingly under advertised. It's been years since I was there so I don't know what the current display's are like. The cost of admission is miniscule. €3.50 for Adults is nothing.

Is their problem that they aren't getting enough customers, or that they're not making enough Profit on the existing customers.

Either way the answer is not public funding. I wouldn't have a problem with the state investing a bit of money to ensure that Kids get to see the Wax Museum and a few other attractions. I wouldn't fund the Wax museum directly, but I might consider having the Dept of Education give enough money to schools to enable every child to Visit the Wax Museum, and the other Museum's Galleries, The Dail, The Four Courts, etc. At least once in their lives.

Of course if the Wax Museum was to throw open it's doors to the Public Free of Charge then that would be a different issue, in that case I'd favour some sort of Donation from the state towards it's running costs.

-Rd
 
The "crap" beside the motorways is due to EU structural funding requiring public art installations beside said roads as part of their grant package.
 
Public funding for the move! Crazy. Donie (my local TD) is moving the location because he wants to build a hotel on the old site which is a better location for such a hotel. It would be maddness to pay for him to move the museum so that he cash in on his city center property by developing a hotel while the boom is still on track... as much as I like the guy for being smart businessman... he doesnt deserve any public money for the museum.
 
Just to be clear it was the manager of the Wax Museum and not the ultimate owner/investor (?) who was on the radio today calling for public funding.
 
On the public artwork issue ...

This is something I really wish we had more of. I don't mind that some artwork is placed near big roads; I just wish that they were better placed for consideration. I think public art could go someway to redressing the "architecture" vaccuum at play in small towns where I live. Any houses built are identikit lego affairs, or "bling bling, pack as many of your favourite styles in one huge house" efforts and any commercial development is either of the fetching blockwork-with-mad-coloured-cladded-roof variety or the even more appealing cubic commercial units and appartments. My heart sinks when I drive through local towns whose lovely vernacular architecture is being mocked by the ugly buildings we now produce. We might have more money but our taste is AWOL.

I just don't get it. In two county councils I know, the councils have spent god-knows-what digging up perfectly servicable paths and replaced them with imported Asian flagstones. If the idea was to dickie-up the town I think this money would have been far better spent supporting local (or not) artists creat street sculptures or other public artwork.

Rebecca
 
By and large I'm in favour of Public Artwork beside roads. Particularly if/when we ever get a Proper Motorway network the drive between cities while much faster will be far more boring. I'd hate the only landmark between our cities to be Toll Gates.

The Globe at the Naas junction is excellent. Apart completely from the fact that I like it as a pice of Art, My heart lifts every time I pass it going South because I'm leaving Dublin and Traffic Gridlock behind and it lifts Going North because I'm nearly home after the 2 hour-ish drive from Waterford.

Roadside Art is very unusual because you will see it more than most artwork, but only in passing. You might spend an hour in a Gallery looking at a Jack Yeats painting and then never look at it again in your life. With Roadside art you see it constantly but only in very short snippets.

I remember as a kid there was a Tree not far from where I lived that had a Knot on the side of the trunk. It was shaped exactly like a Pigs Head. I was fascinated by it, I'd crane my neck every time we drove pas. It hadn't been carved it was just like that. Over the years it rotted to nothing, but I still look at where it used to be when I drive past.

Give me Roadside Art over Roadside Billboards any day.

-Rd
 
If the numbers attending plumate and the quality of the exhibits fall further, maybe we could make it our National Museum....seems to work for the Abbey Theatre.I would prefer a National Cinema, at least some of us go.
 
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