About Sculpture Dublin

Sculpture Dublin was set up to raise awareness of the city’s sculptural heritage and to commission new sculptures in parks and public spaces city-wide. The initiative was developed by Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services and the City Arts Office and supported by the Hugh Lane Gallery and Visual Artists Ireland.

Sculpture Dublin was launched on 6 July 2020. Six sculptures were commissioned for the city through open and invited competitions. Four permanent sculptures have been installed in Ballyfermot, Bushy Park, Kildonan Park and Smithfield Square Lower. A temporary commission was installed on the O’Connell Plinth outside City Hall. The final commission – a land artwork for St. Anne’s Park – will be completed in 2023.

Sculpture Dublin ran 174 public engagement events and activities between November 2020 and April 2022, including:

• 90 creative workshops with local communities

• 18 VTS (visual thinking strategies) sculpture clubs

• 14 public consultations, surveys & questionnaires

• 23 talks & lectures

• 10 sculpture tours

• 7 public meetings & focus groups

• 6 artists’ cafes

• 6 exhibitions & launch events

Awareness-raising took the form of ads in local papers, leaflets distributed to 3,000 houses in the neighbourhoods of the new commissions, and working closely with Local Area Offices to share information and updates.

Sculpture Dublin featured in 83 press and media reports, including 19 broadcast items, 50 online and 14 print articles.

An independent survey of public attitudes to sculpture in Dublin was carried out to mark the close of Sculpture Dublin. 78% of those surveyed expressed support for ongoing public art commissioning in the city and 73% expressed support for public involvement in the decision-making process. The survey validates the approach that Dublin City Council has taken, through the Sculpture Dublin programme, which sought to ensure that the commissioning process was competitive, fair and transparent and that public engagement, as well as artistic ambition, were structuring principles.