Cullen, whose portfolio includes arts and culture as well as tourism, visited the existing Irish Arts Center and also toured a site on the west side of Manhattan this week that New York city is prepared to provide for the proposed new center at a nominal fee.
Cullen also met with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a strong backer of the plan for the center.
“There is a vibrant base in New York already and (the center) will bring cohesion and critical mass to a lot of good things already going on,” Cullen told the Echo in an interview Monday.
The idea of a large scale Irish center has been discussed for some years. Actor Gabriel Byrne has been to the forefront of the effort to turn the dream into reality.
“From the government’s point of view, we are committed to the arts center and want to get the project underway,” said Cullen.
He said that the money necessary for the initial planning phase would amount to $170,000 and the Irish government was ready to inject this sum.
Cullen said that officials from his department would be be looking at the capital plan for the center because there was now a need to formalize the project which, he estimated, would cost as much as $30 million to ultimately complete.
The cost of the center is expected to be covered in the main by private donations.
Cullen said that he was encouraged by what had emerged from his meeting with Speaker Quinn.
“She is very keen on this and that’s a big plus. She spelled out the city’s view and it was reassuring,” said Cullen.
“As the minister responsible I think it’s a great project and I think Gabriel Byrne’s vision is the correct vision.”
Cullen said it was now a matter of getting through the planning process. This would probably take a couple of years by which time, he hoped, there would be an upturn in the economy that would make funding of the project an easier task.
In an interview with the Irish Echo last August, Gabriel Byrne outlined his ideas for a center that would provide a single roof for many and varied Irish-related events and activities.
“A new center would encourage not just the importation of current Irish culture, and diverse current Irish culture, but would encourage the development of a unique Irish American cultural voice, this while we would have the place to do it which is also a business center, where people from Ireland could come in and do business, where Irish people could get together socially,” was how Byrne described the proposed center.
“Of course it’s a sensitive time economically to be asking for money. But this is the best time to invest, not just in this notion of an Irish identity and culture, but in the brand of Ireland.
“It just needs a commitment from the Irish government to support this. The government are behind it, in theory. It just needs that final push to make it happen. You really have to envision it as a temple on the hill. We would have to make a place of welcome, not just for Irish Americans. It would reach out to all cultures, a place of light and welcome,” Byrne said at the time.
With Minister Cullen’s visit this week and his pledge of concrete action, the theory of the center has taken a bold step towards being a fact.