Ms Rose McHugh:

It is partly a matter of awareness. People just are not aware of it. I plan for some very simple things. Eight of the board are new and at the next board meeting, I am going to say that if each of them could make contact with ten new people who they think would be interested, and put an onus on them to bring people in because it would help. Opening on Sundays will be attractive because most people work during the week and have jobs to do on Saturday. Sunday is when people have time to enjoy culture and engage with it. The gallery will hopefully open on Sundays, and we will make people more aware of it. There is not an awareness there. We have a wonderful jewel sitting on our doorstep in the centre of our city, and there is much that can be done. It is partly a matter of awareness for people.

We have a beautiful library and we have started to have small weddings and functions in the building. We could do more and open it up. The library, for example, would make a superb place for a meeting room and strategy days. It is a beautiful old library. We have a board now with contacts and relationships with business people in Cork. It will start making people think about using the Crawford Art Gallery for a meeting or an away day. We had a very good meeting on International Women's Day about a month ago. Accountancy firms brought in 50 to 100 women who toured the gallery and had dinner there. I received such positive feedback on that.

It is a process of getting people in, ensuring they have an enjoyable experience and getting the word out. It will not happen overnight but I would like to see a change and that it would open up more. There are some very loyal people and very regular visitors but it is about getting the average person to come in and see what we do because there are different exhibitions all the time. A number of them are happening at any one time. It is also about getting younger people engaged and engaging with the colleges. It is hard work. It is just getting the message out there.