The Irish Arts Center in Manhattan has announced that it has raised more than $40 million to redevelop its 51st Street building, the original part of the center before the expanded second phase that has been operational for several years.
The new facility, said a release, "will complement the organization’s $60 million 11th Avenue building opened in 2021, with construction expected to begin in early 2027 and conclude in 2029, completing Phase Two of the new Irish Arts Center capital project."
The Center also announced that long serving executive director Aidan Connolly will be stepping aside from his position after two decades. The changes on Manhattan's West Side were first reported Tuesday in the New York Times.
Connolly told the Echo that he would continue to have a role, albeit in an advisory capacity.
Continued the IAC release: "The 51st Street building is the culmination of IAC’s $100 million transformation, under the leadership of Executive Director Aidan Connolly and the IAC team, from a modest but significant Off-Off-Broadway theater into one of New York’s premiere multidisciplinary presenters in a state-of-the-art two-building campus.
"Today, the organization also revealed long-planned succession news, with Connolly’s announcement that he will conclude his twenty-year tenure as Executive Director in July 2027. Connolly was appointed in 2007 with the mandate to reimagine a new Irish Arts Center for the 21st century and bring that vision to fruition. He will remain as an advisor to the board for strategic, financial, and capital planning and to help transition and onboard new leadership, through the completion of the 51st Street construction in 2029.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Aidan Connolly’s transformative twenty-year tenure of leadership
at Irish Arts Center,” said Board Chair John Martin on Connolly’s decision to conclude his time as executive director next summer.
“Much as we wish he would remain, we are grateful he will stay on as an advisor to the board to help transition new leadership and see through our 51st Street construction.”
Connolly said: "As I reflect on what we have accomplished together, I am filled with gratitude: for our entire board and staff—especially my brilliant longtime cultural co-conspirators over two decades—Pauline Turley, the wondrous personification of Irish hospitality that underpins our culture, and Rachael Gilkey, whose boundless commitment to excellence is an enduring inspiration—and all of our enormously talented, creative, hardworking colleagues; the board chairs I’ve served under: Cel Donaghy, Gerry Boyle, Shaun Kelly, Bob McCann, and John Martin; board member, confidant, mentor and dear friend Loretta Brennan Glucksman; our honorary chairs Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson; all our supporters, audiences, teachers and students, collaborators and partners. And, most of all, every artist we have presented, commissioned, or supported, or who has otherwise inspired us."
