ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two off-site projects initiated by the National Gallery of Ireland that have both emerged from, and fed back into their Early Years programme. The National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) is located in Dublin’s south city centre. The collection is comprised of about 16,000 paintings, drawings, watercolours, miniatures, prints, sculpture and decorative arts. The chapter presents an exploration of two off-site Early Years projects begun by the NGI in 2017. The first off-site Early Years project was with a local community resource centre, St Andrew’s. Ireland is in the midst of a severe housing crisis. By July 2018, 9,891 people in Ireland were homeless. “Family hubs” are a state-run interim response to this crisis. Families, usually with single parents, are placed in a communal accommodation facility, in this case a former Magdalene Laundry, as a temporary measure before suitable housing is found.
