On 13 July 2022 at Kilkenny Castle, Clare Museum was awarded Maintenance of Accreditation under the Heritage Council’s Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI).
The MSPI was established to promote professionalism in Irish museums, and it requires museums to achieve excellence across 34 standards. These standards relate to the management of the museum as well as collection care and how the museum engages with the public.
The assessment of standards was undertaken by independent assessors on behalf of the Heritage Council in September 2021.
The assessors noted how we had increased the number of artefacts donated to the museum and how, with funding from the Friends of the National Collection of Ireland, we had added a work by artist Frederic William Burton to the collection.
Our activity online during the pandemic, temporary exhibition on the Irish War of Independence and a public lecture series were all noted as important developments since Full Accreditation was first awarded to the Museum in 2018.
The transfer of De Valera’s Dodge car to the museum was also acknowledged, even though at the time of assessment the transfer was yet to take place.
Clare Museum will be assessed for maintenance of the standards once again in 2024.