The former St Mary’s Church has been converted into a modern museum and will also be a venue for select events and exhibitions. Designed to enrich the cultural life of the city and provide a new international standard attraction for visitors the museum has several functions: as the starting point for understanding Kilkenny’s medieval history, to display Kilkenny’s Civic Treasures and replicas of some of Ossory High Crosses and to provide a space for temporary exhibitions and cultural events. Displays of Kilkenny’s civic treasures and replicas of some of the High Crosses of Ossory illustrate the local Gaelic monastic heritage and the ancient city’s historic role in Ireland. Kilkenny’s 800-year story is told with a contemporary twist within the new museum. The customer experience contains a long colourful interactive table similar to a giant iPad, an elongated plasma TV screen and projected imagery onto a giant wall allowing visitors to get immersed in the rich history with the aid of modern technology. Kilkenny Civic Trust is a registered charity set up by Kilkenny County Council in 1989 to acquire the premises in Kilkenny of the former Kilkenny Design Workshops. In late 2016 Kilkenny Civic Trust appointed a new management team to implement a new strategic ambition: to achieve better use of the existing Trust assets, through careful management policies, and identifying new commercial opportunities, to increase visitors and footfall to Butler House and the Castle Yard, to play a strategic role in the development of Heritage Tourism in Kilkenny, to collaborate with the key tourism industry stakeholders (O.P.W., Failte Ireland, Local Authorities, and Tour Operators) to achieve increased economic activity and to oversee the management of the new Medieval Mile Museum, at St. Mary’s Church, off High Street, Kilkenny.
