Athy Arts Centre

The project was the conversion of Athy Methodist Church and Hall to a dual function centre which continues in use as a church on Sunday mornings but serves as a theatre, art gallery and workshop space for the rest of the week. This is the first such project of its kind in the country. Negotiations and development took three years.

For three decades there has been a need for a community arts centre in Athy and the willingness of the Methodist community to discuss the possibility of join use made the project an exciting possibility.

The project is jointly managed by Athy Town Council, Athy Arts Company Ltd, the Methodist community and supported by Kildare County Council arts service in its programming budget. The day to day running is managed by the voluntary services of the Arts Co members, drawn from local arts organizations.

The aims are:

• to provide a community arts space;
• to facilitate local arts development and
• to provide a space for touring theatre, music and visual art shows.

These are being met through the mixed use of the centre which currently houses workshops in music, theatre, visual arts and public discussion fora. The centre also an extensive programme of touring shows – classical; popular; folk; theatre companies and exhibitions. All of this is overseen by a voluntary committee working with Music Network and promoters of theatre, music and visual arts