James Joyce fans around the world celebrate June 16 as Bloomsday – the day the famed Irish author’s 1922 classic “Ulysses” takes place in 1904 – and commemorate it with special readings, plays and even races.
But the University at Buffalo is celebrating it with news of a $10 million state grant that will pay for construction of a museum to house the largest James Joyce collection in the world.
Since acquiring much of the collection in the 1950s, UB has kept more than 10,000 pages of Joyce’s manuscript material, notes and correspondence, as well as photographs and personal belongings, in the Special Collections library on the fourth floor of Capen Hall on UB’s North Campus.
On Bloomsday 2021, UB unveiled a 36-foot-tall mural of Joyce on the side of the LoTempio P.C. Law Group building in downtown Buffalo and announced the plan for a Joyce museum to be constructed in 5,000 square feet of Abbott Hall on its South Campus, to make the collection and the man behind the famous name accessible to a broader audience.
Last Bloomsday, UB started a fundraising campaign for the museum with a $100,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and estimated the capital project alone – the bricks and mortar part – would cost $10 million.
Friday, State Sen. Tim Kennedy and UB officials gathered to announce that amount in state funding for the project, ensuring it will become a reality.
Kennedy, whose district includes UB’s South Campus, has been a longtime supporter of the university’s Joyce collection and has brought leading representatives of the Irish government to visit it.
“This funding is transformational for the preservation of Irish heritage here in Buffalo and all of New York State, and will allow the University at Buffalo’s extensive collection of James Joyce’s work to be truly celebrated,” Kennedy said. “I’ve fought for this state investment for years, because I…
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