Sir, - For the past 10 years we, the community of St Michael's Estate in Inchicore, have developed a deep and lasting relationship with the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It was not our idea to get involved there. It was through the director, Declan McGonagle, having a vision which was inclusive of all the strata and sectors of society that we first were engaged.
We were invited as a community to paint a mural on the hoarding outside the museum for its opening in 1990. This mural lasted for five years. We then went on to produce "Unspoken Truths", a women's exhibition which President Mary Robinson opened at the museum in November 1992 with the total backing and support of Declan McGonagle. We are also the community which made the "Once Is Too Much" exhibition on violence against women, which stood alongside the Andy Warhol exhibition in November 1997.
These achievements were possible because a national institution believed and resourced us to enable our voice to be heard through the arts. The relationship between the museum and us has in no way being patronising. It was never envisaged that we would only be participants; we also wanted a role in the shaping of the museum in terms of its policies. I was appointed as the first community representative by ex-Minister Michael D. Higgins in 1995 and served for five years on the IMMA board. I have always found its director a fair man, able to fulfil a multidimensional role on limited resources.
We as a community are shocked at how things are developing at IMMA. Only two of the past board-members were reappointed, in a sense wiping away the board's historical memory. Now there is an danger, by not re-appointing Declan McGonagle as director, of a large part of the museum memory and history being lost.
We ask, who will be next? The community of St Michael's Estate would like to express a full vote of confidence in Declan McGonagle's contribution to the community of Inchicore and to those who experience exclusion in Irish society. The Irish Museum of Modern Art is a unique institution and this should not be lost. - Yours, etc.,
Rita Fagan, Ex-Board Member IMMA, Director of the Family Resource Centre, St Michael's Estate, Inchicore, Dublin 8.