Aidan Connolly has spent nearly two decades turning a scrappy Irish immigrant arts nonprofit into a two-building cultural institution on Manhattan's West Side, and now he's preparing to hand it off. Connolly plans to step down as executive director of the Irish Arts Center in mid-2027, with plans to stay on afterward as an adviser to the board.
According to The New York Times, Connolly became executive director in 2007, when the organization had one building, four staff members, and an annual budget of $690,000. Today, per the same report, the center has two buildings, a full-time payroll of 26, and an annual budget of $8.7 million. Connolly told the Times he had prepared for the end of his tenure, describing his time there as an opportunity to build an organization that embraces both old and new and welcomes people of all backgrounds.
From a 1970s Walk-Up to a Multidisciplinary Campus
The Irish Arts Center traces its roots to 1972, when it was founded as a grassroots home for Irish immigrant artists, according to the University of Notre Dame. The organization has occupied its original West 51st Street building in Manhattan since the 1970s, the Times reports, and under Connolly it has evolved from a neighborhood gathering place into what Notre Dame describes as a significant player in New York City's arts scene.
In December 2021, the center opened a new 11th Avenue facility to the public, according to the Irish Arts Center's own account of its capital campaign. The Times reports the $60 million project for the center's 11th Avenue building was completed that same year and includes a black-box theater seating up to 199 people. Connolly told the Times the project was meant to create a multidisciplinary institution, and he has described the center elsewhere as an intimately scaled hybrid of 92NY and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
A Second Phase Takes Shape on West 51st Street
With the Ninth Avenue building open, attention has turned back to the organization's original home. The Times reports a $40 million renovation project for the West 51st Street building, with construction expected to begin in early 2027. The redeveloped site will contain a 75-seat venue usable as a rehearsal studio and community-event space, and the renovation plans were designed by Davis Brody Bond, per the Times.
IrishCentral, reporting separately, describes the second phase as redeveloping the original 51st Street site into a companion facility with a 75-seat flexible venue, staff offices, and storage and production space, and says IrishCentral the organization has raised $36 million toward that redevelopment, representing the public phase of a $50 million Phase Two campaign. Construction timing in that account also points to early 2027, though completion has been reported inconsistently elsewhere as late 2028 or sometime between late 2028 and 2029.
Government Dollars, and Dueling Numbers
Government support has been a significant piece of the funding puzzle. IrishCentral reports a new €3 million grant from the Irish government, along with $6 million from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and $3.5 million from the New York State Council on the Arts—$9.5 million combined from the two agencies.
A third account, from the Irish Echo, says the City of New York has pledged $10 million and the Irish government $4 million toward the 51st Street renovation and redevelopment — figures that don't match the other two tallies. The organization's broader finances have also shifted over time: the Howard Gilman Foundation has given the Irish Arts Center nearly $1.8 million over ten years, according to the Times.
A Mission Built Beyond One Community
Connolly has repeatedly framed the center's mission as extending past its Irish roots. He told the Times the Irish Arts Center must be relevant to a cross-section of New Yorkers rather than serving only Irish people — a philosophy echoed in his earlier remarks to Notre Dame about making Irish and Irish-American identity relevant to artists and audiences of all backgrounds in the 21st century. The Irish Arts Center itself has described its new building as meant to serve New Yorkers who love great art, visitors seeking an authentic cultural experience, and the global Irish community, according to the center's own capital campaign materials.
That expanded footprint has translated into a fuller performance calendar. IrishCentral reported the center's spring 2026 season included programming by Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble, Bell X1, and the production North Star, part of what Connolly has described elsewhere as a dramatic expansion in capacity for in-person classes, theatrical performances, and concerts compared with what the old building could support. The center's expanded capacity for in-person classes, theatrical performances, and concerts reflects its growth.
Looking Toward the Exit
Per the Times, Connolly plans to become a visiting scholar at the University of Galway after stepping down, dividing his time between the Irish Arts Center and the university, where he intends to teach and write an autobiographical instruction manual for small- to medium-size nonprofits. His path to the center also included theater: Connolly produced The Blowin of Baile Gall by Ronan Noone in 2005, the Times reports.
With the West 51st Street renovation set to begin in early 2027 and Connolly's own departure targeted for mid-2027, the Irish Arts Center is approaching a year of overlapping transitions — a rebuilt flagship and a new chapter in leadership arriving almost in tandem.
