We want our occupiers to feel healthy and supported in their workplace and part of that is to ensure they are connected to the wider neighbourhood. We also want others that live and work in our local communities to benefit from our presence. Our cultural initiatives offer enriching ways to bring our occupiers and the wider community together.
Our commitment to sustainability is underscored by the strong engagement we have with our occupiers. We provide quarterly updates to our occupiers to help promote engagement and information sharing. Our Spring update includes some news updates from around the portfolio, including new sustainability initiatives and plans for this year’s wellbeing programme.
The Dublin Simon Community has been helping to care for some of the city’s most vulnerable citizens for more than half a century. We work closely with their Property Development Department, sharing advice and support across policy and procedures, reporting and governance in the Community’s Capital Projects programme.
The largest and most significant project being undertaken by the Dublin Simon Community is currently the Medical Treatment facility at Ushers Island. This €30 million project, due to be completed in 2022, will provide 100 beds for homeless people requiring addiction support. The IPUT Development team is providing on-going project management advice for this project.
Mary Lavin was a writer who lived and worked on Lad Lane. Recognising her contribution, IPUT is delighted to name the new public square at Wilton Park as Mary Lavin Place, making it the first public space in Ireland to be named in honour of a female writer.
We commissioned Mary’s granddaughter, Kathleen MacMahon to write an essay about her grandmother.
We are proud to support the Royal Hibernian Academy (the RHA). It supports and promotes artists through its membership, with masterclasses and a strong community programme. IPUT is proud to fund a RHA Schools Arts Initiative, as well as exhibitions and events throughout the year.
Through our close relationship with the RHA, we have also commissioned artists to produce public art works, such as Leah Hewson’s vast installation, Abiding Traces, for the Tropical Fruit Warehouse hoarding at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. The RHA are advisors on our Living Canvas Curatorial Panel.
Thriving cities make room for creativity. Responding to the crisis in spaces for artists to work in Dublin, we partnered with the Royal Hibernian Academy to fully fund three artist’s studios at Wilton Park. Established in 2019, the studios offer six-month residencies to artists at crucial stages in their careers, when such supports are vital. Artists who have benefitted include Brendan Earley, Alan Phelan, Leah Hewson, Cathy Dorman, and Helen MacMahon.
Championing innovation, collaboration, and new thinking, we were delighted to again work with the RHA to present Eilís O’Connell, Six Works – an Augmented Reality Exhibition at Wilton Park. Part of our placemaking strategy, which is always to enrich the areas in which we work, this interactive experience saw visitors using their smart devices to see sculpture works come to life virtually throughout the park.
As patrons, we are delighted to become part of this illustrious tradition and support the craft of printmaking in Ireland. Our support also includes commissioning fine art prints, such as a limited edition by one of the Wilton Park Studios’ Artists in Residence, Leah Hewson. We also collaborate on portfolios, a recent commission being for leading Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, contributing a text for a portfolio with artist, Charles Tyrrell.
