Madam, - The future location of the National College of Art and Design has been raised again by Aidan Dunne (Artscape, March 25th). Dublin City Council believes that an evaluation of the move of the campus to a suburban location should assess the strategic benefits to the college of its present location in the inner city which I represent.
The NCAD campus in Thomas Street serves as a pivotal site within a creative corridor linking the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham and the Digital Hub to the west with Temple Bar and Trinity College to the east. Further linkages are likely to develop with the emergence of the DIT at Grangegorman and the development of the cultural cluster at the Heuston Gateway.
The kind of modern knowledge economy emerging in the Thomas Street and inner city area thrives from an intensity of activity and creativity and the close proximity of buildings and institutions. The removal of the critical pillar of the NCAD could seriously erode the bedrock of this energy base.
A city finds its life force in its young people and the students of the NCAD play an important role in enriching and reviving the inner city. In turn, students benefit from the rich texture of culture, economic and lifestyle options in the inner city. There is little doubt that the gritty realism and multiplicity of contexts available throughout the inner city help inspire the creative spirit.
Dublin's inner city is the natural home for the NCAD. A generous investment programme for the college at its current location represents the next logical step in the creative regeneration of the inner city. - Yours, etc,
Cllr CATHERINE BYRNE, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mansion House, Dublin 2.