University of Galway and Galway City Museum Unveil New Partnership
The signing of the partnership agreement between the University of Galway and Galway City Museum. Photo credit: Boyd Challenger.
By Amy O’Connor
The moving stories of those who survived Tuam’s mother and baby home, and other institutions, have inspired a new project between the city museum and University of Galway.
Galway City Museum has forged a partnership with the university, following the success of an exhibition entitled ‘Survivor Stories: Tuam and Ireland’s Institutional Past’. The new alliance will focus on high-impact educational and cultural initiatives between 2026 and 2030.
The initiative will involve the two organisations working together on exhibition development, digital humanities projects, public programming, heritage collections and projects, research and student learning and community engagement.
The partnership comes after successful past collaborations and “represents an important new milestone in the [University of Galway and Galway City Museum] partnership”, according to Leonard Cleary, Chief Executive of Galway City Council.
Mr Cleary also said that with the support of a major €12.3 million investment from Fáilte Ireland, there is an “extraordinary opportunity to raise [their] ambitions of [their] partnership with the University, sharing expertise and resources to co-create world-class exhibitions, projects and public programmes for the benefit of visitors, students and the wider community”.
Professor David Burn, president of University of Galway said his organisation “shares strong cultural, educational and research links with Galway City Museum and it’s wonderful to formally develop this partnership”.
At the official partnership signing, Mr Cleary and Professor Burn met with survivors from the Tuam mother and baby institutions to read comments and reflections from the exhibition ‘Survivor Stories’.
The exhibition ran from 1 July–26 September, attracting almost 64,000 visitors and 29 USA tour groups. It was the first of its kind in focusing on the institutions and their impact on Irish society. Plans are in the making for the exhibition to tour next year.
