The donated items had been sold by the adult grandchildren of the poet WB Yeats in an auction at Sotheby’s in September 2017 which realised £2 million. They had inherited the collection from their late parents Senator Michael Yeats (a son of the poet WB Yeats) and his wife the harpist Gráinne Yeats who lived in Dalkey, Co Dublin.

The boats were sold as a single lot in Sotheby’s for £1,750, just above the estimate of £1,000-£1,500. The wooden storage case, which features 19 ink and watercolour drawings by the artist that have been pasted onto the inside of the lid, sold for £15,000 at Sotheby’s – double the estimate of £7,000-£9,000.

We could not be more excited about having these wonderful pieces restored for exhibition in Spring 2021 and to bring the Yeats Family story to life for the children of Sligo in the years ahead.

Follow us on social media for further updates as the restoration project progresses.

Here at The Model, we were thrilled to open our doors again last week. Those who visited will have noticed some changes to the visitor experience, which we have introduced to curtail the spread of Covid-19, and to ensure that all of our visitors and staff have the safest experience possible in our building.

Entrance to The Model is strictly via The Mall and exit is onto Connaughton Road. When you enter the building, one of our staff will take your name and contact details, and these will be held temporarily in case of the positive identification of Covid 19. We ask that you wear a mask whilst in the centre in the interests of the safety of our staff and your fellow patrons. We also ask that you tell staff if you have been outside of the country in the last 14 days as we would prefer that those who haven’t self isolated for the requisite time do not enter our building. Staff and invigilators are available at all times to answer any queries that you might have – please keep a safe distance of 2m when speaking to our team.

One of the first things you might notice is that we have a new one-way system going through the building and galleries. This is to make sure that social distancing can be maintained by visitors at all times. To help you navigate this system, we have provided arrows on the floor and signage for you to follow. In the Niland Gallery, where visitors can see our newly opened show, Jack Butler Yeats; ‘A Thought of Sligo’, we have placed foot markers in allocated places in the gallery to indicate the required physical distance they should observe while viewing the exhibition. ‘A Thought of Sligo’ enables viewers to observe the evolution of Jack’s practice as a painter, and particularly the way in which Sligo and the Northwest was an ever present influence in his work. 

The acclaimed group exhibition “The Sea Around Us” returns with some minor tweaks to it’s presentation, each room now has signage indicating its maximum capacity and we ask visitors to queue if that particular gallery is full. Two film investigations by Forensic Oceanography are on view, and while we can no longer supply shared headphones, we invite visitors to plug their own headphones into the docking stations we have provided so that they listen to the audio on these videos. If you don’t have your own, you can buy earphones in house for €3. At the Café you can also enjoy our new menu which includes a selection of sandwiches, a homemade soup of the day, a selection Danish pastries, gourmet coffee and our very special homemade cheesecake. All prepared with care on site by our chef.

We are currently working on the introduction of QR codes! These QR codes will provide links to the galleries online catalogue, information on specific exhibitions and the history of the building itself and will enhance the visitor experience. More information on your safe visit is available here.

The last few months have been a profoundly difficult time for everyone as we navigated through a global pandemic, and we are very excited to re-open the doors of our beautiful building this July, to welcome back our local communities, and to share in the magic of art in our galleries once again. The work of artists – and indeed nature and the ocean – themes of our current exhibition The Sea Around Us, can offer enormous healing and recovery.  We hope that The Model will be an important part of this journey for the people of Sligo in the coming months and years.

We are also delighted that we can present two major exhibitions, with special resonance for Sligo people – The Sea Around Us, a multi-sensory experience of visuals and sound, that invites audiences to drift outwards from the Sligo shoreline to explore the many different aspects of our relationship with the sea; and Jack Butler Yeats, ‘A Thought of Sligo’, which looks at the impact of Sligo and the West on the artist’s work.

New Covid-19 prevention protocols will be in place throughout the building to ensure that we can share our work and welcome back our audiences and artists in a safe environment. Hygiene and physical distancing will be of the utmost importance and will be clearly facilitated within the building. These measures will be outlined on our website in advance of opening so that visitors can be assured of a safe space to reconnect with the magic of art.

The Model remains free of charge but visitors will be asked to check in on entry. Opening hours will initially be Thursday-Saturday 12-4 pm in what is the first phase of a gradual reopening with further hours/days planned to be added over the Autumn. Entry is strictly via The Mall entrance and exit via Connaughton Road.

The Sea Around Us is an ambitious international exhibition, that invites viewers to contemplate the ebb and flow of the ocean, and reconsider the sea as a stage where a multiplicity of unseen – at times non-human, and at times inhumane – dramas are played out. The show is accompanied by no man’s land a new music score and sound installation composed by Karen Power. The piece, specially commissioned by The Model on the occasion of this exhibition, is based on field recordings gathered from the Sligo seaboard at Strandhill, Gibraltar Point, Deadman’s Point, Rosses Point, Lower Ross Beach, Lissadell Beach, Ballygilgan Nature Reserve, Streedagh Beach. The pairing of the human voice with sea continues Power’s enquiry into the basic function of language as used by all species. no man’s land places the voice in the centre of the sea as it searches for connection between superficially unconnected beings. The language that emerges between sea and voice lets us hear both in a new way, while potentially altering our future relationship with the sea around us. 

For those who can’t wait until 23 July to experience this wonderful exhibition, a five-minute extract of the live premiere of no man’s land, can be experienced online at here