In the wake of the IMMA controversy and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Abbey Theatre, it is an altogether more positive and welcome note that will be sounded in another cultural institution next Monday when the Minister for the Arts opens the National Gallery's new Millennium Wing.
Beset by delays of one kind or another, this impressive extension to our National Gallery might well be regarded as a belated millennium present to the State and to the city of Dublin. It has been worth the wait. As a much-needed addition to the capital's art space it should be celebrated and enjoyed by all who value visual culture. And it is a reminder of how visual culture truly does encompass both the works of art that hang on the wall and the edifice in which they are hung.
In his assessment of the new building in today's Weekend supplement, our Environment Editor, Frank McDonald, goes as far as to say that if there is now anywhere in Dublin with the "wow factor" then this is it. The achievement of giving substance to the initial vision and bringing to fruition all the challenges involved, not least of which was extensive private fund-raising which amounted to half the cost, has been no meagre task. Praise, and gratitude, is therefore due to all concerned: those in the gallery who had the foresight to recognise the need for, and benefits of, such a project, the OPW which oversaw the work and all who took the bold initiative to champion the marriage of the original gallery's more classical form with the stylish modern structure delivered by the London architects Benson and Forsyth.
Of course as well as this architectural gain, the city also benefits from now having a venue that can house the kind of world-class, showpiece exhibition with which the gallery is opening - Monet, Renoir and the Impressionist Landscape. With the odd exception, the viewing public here has been starved of exhibitions of this quality and which of course are necessary if Dublin is to compete with other cities in the area of cultural tourism.
In recent years we have seen many examples of the extent to which the creation of new museums and gallery space can reinvigorate the cultural vibrancy of major cities - the Tate Modern in London, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm which similarly blended the old with the new. What might appear to have been a museum craze at the end of the 20th century certainly caught the public imagination and contributed to a reawakening of interest in the visual arts. There is every potential that the Millennium Wing will have a similar effect here and in time come to be seen as a landmark on Dublin's cultural map.