YOUR PLACE IS HERE
Every college is different. Every college comes with its own learning curve (and that’s before you begin any actual learning). At NCAD you’ll discover a welcoming, self-contained campus. Our culturally-rich, friendly community is home to curious and creative minds from over 40 countries. Focused around a central open space known as Red Square, and with a heritage dating back two centuries, the campus itself is a beautiful mix of old buildings, industrial heritage, and contemporary additions. Our immediate area – Thomas, Francis and Meath Streets – are a mix of markets, vintage and street traders, quirky cafés, small galleries, churches and shops. NCAD is the number one ranked art and design institution in Ireland and a Recognised College of University College Dublin, which is in the top one percent of the world’s universities. The Edward Murphy Library – named after our inspirational former Librarian, who spent decades painstakingly compiling a world-class collection of books and material related to art and design – also houses NIVAL, an unparalleled public research resource dedicated to the documentation of 20th and 21st century Irish visual art and design. Well known as a vibrant and multicultural city, Dublin has the youngest population in Europe. Literature, theatre, live music, and contemporary art all blend together to form a rich culture and thriving scene. Small cutting-edge galleries, creative studios and hubs, and national institutions – such as our neighbour IMMA, and the National Museum of Ireland and National Gallery of Ireland – provide an inspirational resource and platform for Dublin’s vibrant community of artists, makers and designers. We actively partner with diverse agencies, institutions and groups across society, and the dynamic cultural and creative scene found both in Dublin and internationally provides a rich resource for our teaching and research. Some of the world’s biggest and most exciting companies have located key facilities in Dublin, and NCAD actively seeks opportunities and collaborations with home-grown and start-up companies as well as international creative industries, leading brands and creative multinationals.
Welcome to our place. We hope you’ll make it yours.
FIND SPACE TO MAKE, REFLECT, INNOVATE & CREATE
NCAD offers an extensive range of studios, workshops and equipment, creating a vibrant and creative learning environment. Working in a studio is what sets art and design education apart from other types of learning, encouraging creative development and peer learning. From First Year on, students on an art or design programme in NCAD are all given a studio space. This space becomes your base for the year and your home from home, the centre of your working life as a student. Visual Culture students who are not based in a studio have a ‘Home Room’, a communal space to gather together, chat, relax, work and plan. At NCAD you will find workshops for working with wood, metal, ceramics, glass and textiles, for traditional and digital print on paper and fabric, for knitting, weaving and sewing, for book binding, preparing canvases, film editing, prototyping products and 3D printing. All our workshops are supported by experienced specialist technicians.
FIND SPACE TO RESEARCH, TALK, EAT & SOCIALISE
Edward Murphy Library
Ireland’s leading art and design library with an extensive collection of material relating to 19th, 20th and 21st century art, design and visual culture.
National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL)
A research library of international importance which documents the work of Irish artists and designers from 1900 to the present day.
The NCAD Gallery
Provides a space to support contemporary practice and critical debate in visual arts and in design-facing out onto Thomas Street there is always something of interest to see.
The Goodies
NCAD’s cafeteria offering food to sustain and restore in a beautiful environment.
The Student Concourse
The centre for student union social and other activities. Here an antique plaster cast of the statue of Laocoon holds pride of place, having survived the student protests of ’69 and the iconoclastic smashing of the antique plaster collection, and travelled from NCAD’s former home in Kildare Street to the Thomas street campus.
Red Square and the garden for taking time out and for relaxing on sunny days.
