The Courthouse Gallery, which is part of the Courthouse Studios and Gallery complex, is an integral part of the cultural life of Ennistymon and North Clare, an area with a dynamic and burgeoning community of artists, poets and musicians.

The building, a late Georgian Courthouse dating from 1790, was first developed as artist studios in 1997, with support from the Arts Council. It was subsequently redeveloped and converted to its present form with the aid of Access Funding received from the Department of the Arts and support from Clare County Council. We opened the doors in 2007 as the Courthouse Studios and Gallery, comprising five multidisciplinary artists studios, a sound recording studio, a main art gallery and a smaller upstairs gallery space.

The building has been sympathetically converted to its present use by architect John O’Reilly and retains much of its original fabric as well as its original scale and form with interesting architectural features such as the original Georgian windows and fanlight. This has been a highly successful conversion and reuse of a Georgian Courthouse into a 21st century studios and gallery complex.

The Courthouse Gallery is a community complex of exhibition spaces, artist studios and a recording studio. The ethos of the gallery is “To be open to all, inclusive in its aims, programming, practice and audience.” We run the gallery to the highest standards. As well as changing exhibitions on a regular basis, we also host evening events such as music, performance, poetry readings and dance. We have regular lectures on history, archaeology and folklore during the winter months. In this way, the gallery attracts a truly varied audience.

The gallery can be rented out for events for a fee of €50 which includes publicity and a gallery assistant for the evening.

The Courthouse complex is overseen by a voluntary board of management. The gallery is run by an enthusiastic team of professionals and volunteers directed by curator Trudi van der Elsen. We have put in place a panel of volunteers who can be called on to invigilate exhibitions and help with all the tasks required in a busy gallery.

We are kindly supported by Clare Co. Council and the Arts Council. Ennistymon Parish Community Employment Scheme supports our gallery assistants.