The Hunt Museum

Formerly known as Custom House Quay

Rutland Street, LimerickGoogle Maps

The Hunt Museum exhibits artefacts and artworks gathered over a lifetime by John and Gertrude Hunt, including works by Picasso, Renoir and Gauguin.
The Palladian-style building, designed by Italian architect Davis Ducart, was constructed in 1765–69. It was the administrative centre for the Revenue Commissioners (including Customs and Excise) in Limerick and the home of the Collector. In the 1840s, with the introduction of a postal system, a Penny Post Office was also opened in the Customs House.
The Office of Public Works undertook the major restoration and refurbishment of the building, completing it in 1996. The Hunt Museum opened on 14 February 1997.
This site has been used as a venue for EVA for 11 editions – in 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2003, 2001 and 1998.
In 2010, Tom de Paor (b. 1967, UK) and Peter Maybury (b. 1969, Ireland) developed a new sculptural commission entitled Temperance (2010). The truncated and inverted pyramid was a vessel that failed to collect rainwater: a reminder of the perils which water holds. The mild steel construction reverted to iron oxide, discolouring the rainwater as it spilled out. The sculpture was sited at the confluence of the Shannon and Abbey at the entrance of the museum, until 2022.
In 2018, John Rainey (b. 1985, UK) presented Going to ruin (you) (2018), an architectural collage using the façade of the Hunt Museum. Rainey installed sections of the 18th-century building but as ruins. The staged destruction showed an imagined vision of future demise. It recalled the 18th-century landscape tradition in which artiﬁcial Greek and Roman ruins were used within wealthy estates and country gardens.