Thursday, 11-Dec-2025

This post is going to read as a bit jaded. Forewarning you all, right up front.

As part of one of my projects, I’ve been reaching out to artists, art spaces, and workshop locations, trying to find a good spot that an arts workshop could be set up. Through the grapevine, I heard about The Complex – an arts studio right here in Dublin that’s being threatened with closure.

Basically, it’s the story of Rent – An arts community is being threatened by the big bad developer. This “Rally to save The Complex” was their last-ditch effort to try and raise the funds to make rent, and keep this space open for use.

What I learned was:
– It’s an arts community. Studio spaces, recording areas, concert halls and rave-style venues. All in that cool, homemade, communal warehouse style.
– It’s been around for a while, and developers are slavering at the thought of turning it into a hotel.
– The crux of the issue is money – the owners are willing to keep renting to The Complex, but they want increased rent. Not a huge increase either, mind you, though no one ever mentioned an amount.
– The other crux of the issue is that the organizers have focused solely on government grants – only public money, and they’ve been chasing this for multiple years.

So here’s where it got interesting, and where the title earned the “(lol)” addition: I spoke with the organizers afterward. Or, I tried to.

I had a few ideas that I wanted to run by them. Thoughts of reaching out to corporate sponsors, leveraging some of the “corporate social responsibility” things that I’d learned at my MBA and while working in the US.

They… weren’t interested. The goal, it turns out, was simply to lobby the government – private funds weren’t of interest. Now, this is after a 45min presentation on how the Irish Government had fairly clearly stated they weren’t interested… and that the group was “open to any and every opportunity to find support”.

Maybe I’m jaded, but those are two different messages. And at this point in my life, I’ve learned to not only listen to what people say… but to listen to what they actually do. And between you and I, dear readers? I do believe the fate of The Complex had been decided years prior.