Douglas Hyde Gallery

Douglas Hyde Gallery acts as a window of opportunity for lesser known artists. From Ireland and further afield to exhibit their work. Founded in 1978, the gallery originally housed contemporary art but changed tack when other Dublin museums began doing the same. Nestled in the grounds of Trinity College, the gallery is never short of visitors.

Their exhibition programme was wide-ranging and eclectic, including shows by major international artists as well as by emerging Irish artists. More recently, the development of contemporary art exhibition programmes by other galleries and museums in Dublin has meant that the Douglas Hyde Gallery’s role has changed. While their general direction remains the same, and although they still hold exhibitions by major figures in the contemporary art world, the programme has become more focused than before, frequently engaging with art that has been marginalized, and with artists, both from Ireland and abroad, who have not yet become well-known or who have been overlooked. We also regularly hold small exhibitions of ethnographic and craft artefacts in Gallery 2.