Tuam’s creativity needs an address
PROPERTY
Property Insights by Johnny Gannon, Fair Deal Property
When people hear “the arts”, they may picture obscure paintings in faraway galleries or actors on a distant stage. In Tuam however, the arts have always been something much more tangible.
It is a band rehearsing above a shop, an actor learning lines far from the limelight, a painter working in a spare room and a filmmaker recording stories before they disappear. It is music, theatre, poetry, dance, photography, craft and community storytelling. Art is not only the finished performance, picture or song. It is the work that happens beforehand, and that work needs time and somewhere to happen.
That is why Galway County Council’s Arts Plan for 2026 to 2030 matters. A Place to Create, A Place to Live commits the council to supporting Tuam as a long-term creative hub by providing grants to develop new arts spaces and bring vacant buildings back into use while also proving bursaries for local artists.
Tuam does not need to be taught creativity. It gave Ireland Tom Murphy, whose plays carried the language and emotional life of our town onto the national stage. It gave us The Saw Doctors, whose songs turned local streets, dancehalls, football matches and stories of emigration into a shared cultural memory.
Yet the arts in Tuam was never confined to famous names. It lived in local bands, drama groups, choirs, dancers, painters, poets and the volunteers who organised concerts, built sets and opened halls. Tuam has always produced artists devoted to meaningful creative endeavours.
Now that tradition can help renew the town.
A vacant building is not neutral. A dark shopfront or empty upper floor gradually signals retreat. Creative occupation can reverse that. A studio puts light in a window. An exhibition, workshop or performance gives people a reason to visit a street, supporting nearby cafés, shops and pubs while restoring confidence in the place itself.
Not every project requires a major arts centre. An office can become a writers’ room. An upper floor can provide studios. A former shop can host exhibitions, workshops or rehearsals.
Artists should not be treated as cheap fillers for empty property, and owners cannot carry every cost. Good projects need proper agreements covering rent, insurance, utilities, maintenance, access, planning and fire safety. With early cooperation between owners, artists, Creative Places Tuam and the council, those matters can be resolved.
The talent is here. What Tuam’s creativity needs now is an address.
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