Nestled in the thumping heart of this fine metropolis sits a Georgian room shrouded in culture, history and art, and boasting the cosiest couch in the fair city. Hold on to this image and imagine yourself, enjoying a fresh coffee and a cheeky doughnut perhaps, in this room filled to the brim with a litany of splendid paraphernalia. In the next room, the country’s premier European art collection awaits. This room, a city dweller’s answer to the “room of requirement”, could be yours for the worth of simply becoming a Friend of the National Gallery.
The space in question is the Friend’s Room, adjacent to the gallery, found at No 5 South Leinster St – directly opposite Trinity. The room is dedicated to the benefactors and members of the Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland, a self-funded organisation committed to the subsistence and promotion of the gallery. Through a range of educational and social events, the aim of the organisation is to support the work of the gallery and expand awareness and appreciation of art. The cost of becoming a Friend varies according to a range of categories, with students paying only €35 for a year-long subscription to free and early previews to exhibitions (specifically the blockbuster Caravaggio and Vermeer additions coming soon), an array of vibrant and engaging weekly lectures and talks and a discount in both the delightful National Gallery bookshop and its adjoining cafe.
The feeling of being a Friend, however, long surpasses the extensity of the benefits. The knowledge that you play a pivotal part in the growth of your national gallery creates an important sense of pride in your country’s art.
Someone once asked me why art should matter in the world. It wasn’t until I became a Friend of the gallery that I was able to properly discover my answer – an embarrassing fact for someone who studies the subject. But when you sit perched in the Friend’s room, gazing at hundreds of diverse individuals toing and froing from the gallery all day long, taking five or even 50 minutes to involve themselves in a canvas, then you understand what art means. The words of George Bernard Shaw, written inside the National Gallery, capture it well: “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” Even on the sunniest of days, when you wish for a leisurely morning to be topped with a lovely lecture, those canvases will still be there.
If that’s not enough, there’s also a positively lovely Sean Keating hanging in the Friend’s room for you to view while you’re there drinking your tea.
