BREAKING: €1.85m funding announced for new National Design Hub in Kilkenny

THE new national design centre of excellence has been awarded funding of almost €2m.

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys today confirmed a total of €1,843,320 under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) will be made available to the National Design Innovation Hub, which will be based in Kilkenny.

The Hub, which will trade as the Centre for Design (C4D), will be the first dedicated centre to promote design and design thinking concepts in the country.

The partners that have been working to develop the C4D over the past 12-months include the Institute of Technology Carlow (ITC), Kilkenny County Council (KCC), The Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCoI), the Kilkenny Industrial Development Company (KIDCo) and the Kilkenny LEADER Partnership (KLP).

The Chairman of Kilkenny County Council, Cllr Eamon Aylward, welcomed the announcement, adding: “Kilkenny having been the home of the Kilkenny Design Workshops from the 1960s to the 1980s is the ideal location for the new Centre for Design (C4D).”

Minster of State and local TD John Paul Phelan said the funding would further boost Kilkenny’s “proud standing as the design capital of Ireland”.

Minister Phelan added: “We are proud to have the National Design and Craft Gallery located in the heart of our medieval city since 2000.

“Kilkenny is also home to the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland which now includes over 60 member organisations and represents more than 2,500 clients. It all makes Kilkenny an incredible hub of creativity, of design, of innovation and of hope for a bright future.

“We are proud of our cultural heritage. We are proud to be Cartoon Saloon’s base, a city and a county with amazing festivals which celebrate food, culture, music, comedy, craft and design. This investment will make Kilkenny an even greater creative space into the future and I’m delighted to welcome this new centre of excellence to Kilkenny.”