An announcement for a new additional exhibition gallery has been made for the Irish Museum of Time located at Greyfriars Church in Waterford City, which is part of the Waterford Treasures collection of museums.
The works at the new exhibition space are set to commence at the adjoining Central Hall building over the coming months and the new exhibition will officially open in early summer 2025. The additional space will enhance the offering of The Irish Museum of Time by providing an additional exhibition gallery to showcase what is considered by many experts in the field of horology as the largest and finest collection in the world of exquisitely crafted 19th-century Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks – an exhibition of over 600 clocks in total.
In addition, an audio-visual theatre will be installed on the first floor along with a small workshop on the top floor of the porch of the building for the ongoing repair and maintenance of clocks and watches which are on display in the museum.
Speaking at the announcement Eamonn McEneaney, Member of the Board of Directors of Waterford Treasures, says, “Our very generous sponsor and philanthropist Mr David Boles, co-founder of the Irish Museum of Time, has agreed to add two new AV presentations in the newly extended space. The first will chronicle the History of Timekeeping from the earliest times to the present while the second presentation will examine the role of clocks and watches in works of art from the 16th century to the Napoleonic era.
These will provide much-needed audio-visual theatre space thereby greatly enhancing the visitor experience and visitor dwell time in Waterford City.
Another museum presentation will see the installation of an AI visitor interface; this will be the first AI visitor interface in any museum in Ireland. This presentation will allow visitors to interrogate a hologram of an 18th-century Waterford clock and a watchmaker who is working in his virtual workshop making a clock. The visitor will be able to pose questions relating to the museum’s collection and to Irish horology in general and, thanks to the magic of AI, almost instantaneously receive answers to their questions.”
In the new gallery exhibition space the spectacular display of Black Forest Cuckoo clocks will add immensely to the international appeal of the Irish Museum of Time. The very nature of the clocks with their many automaton features and their intricate carvings of birds and wild animals will appeal to adults and fascinate young children. The style of the cuckoo clocks is completely different from those already on display in the Irish Museum of Time. The people of Germany are very proud of their Black Forest cuckoo clock traditions which they see as iconic in terms of their cultural inheritance. We are very confident that the addition of this collection to the Museum of Time will encourage German visitors to Ireland to include Waterford on their itineraries.
The Irish Museum of Time is open 7 days per week in Waterford City, visitors can enjoy a self-guided experience or a tour with an expert volunteer guide and further details can be found at www.waterfordtreasures.com
