The Cooler Needs a New Home

The Cooler, Dublin's dedicated rehearsal and performance hub for Irish jazz, has been displaced following a notice to quit issued to The Complex arts centre. We and everyone at The Complex must vacate our home by 14 January 2026.

The Cooler is owned and operated by Improvised Music Company, Ireland's national organisation for jazz and improvised music, strategically funded by the Arts Council.

For two and a half years, The Cooler has provided a 24/7 creative space for over 140 Irish jazz musicians. Developed from the bones of an old banana-ripening unit, it has been a place to rehearse, collaborate, prepare for tours, write new work, make recordings, and build the artistic readiness that is simply not possible elsewhere in the city. On Thursday nights, it has also been our intimate live performance venue, with concerts professionally produced and documented so that artists can develop their careers.

This space worked for musicians, for audiences, and for the art form.It offered time, tools, and stability. It nurtured talent. It created a community. It raised standards. It generated real artistic outcomes that have travelled onto stages across Ireland, Europe, and beyond.

And now, through no fault of our own, it is being taken away.

Singer Emilie Conway performs at The Cooler Jazz Jam

Why it matters

Every art form needs a home, needs a physical space that signals to artists and audiences that this is where the work lives, grows, and is valued.This is the role The Cooler has played for Irish jazz. It is the result of four years of consultation and development with the jazz community. It forms the core of our current and future strategic plans. At The Complex, the Cooler has been part of a buzzing community of different artforms, all making Dublin a more interesting place.A petition, now exceeding 10,000 signatures, has emerged independently of The Complex and The Cooler. Its entirely organic momentum reflects the deep local and national concern surrounding the loss of cultural infrastructure in the North West Inner City.

You can view, sign and share that petition here: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions...

The Complex's Director, Board, staff, and all of us as studio artists are continuing to work in the hope that there can be something done to save our home. Updates on that journey are being shared on social media by The Complex and Improvised Music Company

Córas Trio rehearse at The Cooler, ahead of performances at WOMEX and the Jazz Promotion Network conference

This story is not new. Dublin has lived this cycle repeatedly with Jigsaw, Block T, Mambos, the Tivoli Theatre, Hangar, and the original Bernard Shaw. These were spaces created, nurtured, and animated by cultural communities, only to be erased. Each time a space disappears, so does a community.

As people continue to say - Dublin doesn’t just have a housing crisis; it has a culture crisis.There must be a point where this pattern ends. Cities invest in the places that hold identity and belonging. We accept churches, synagogues, and other civic spaces as essential because they anchor their communities. Cultural spaces play the same role. They are places of artistic community, expression and emotional support, and they deserve the same recognition. When cities invest meaningfully in cultural infrastructure, the results are visible.

If Dublin can find €336,000 for a bicycle shed, then surely it can manage a little jazz club that fits in a banana fridge.

Without a space like The Cooler, Irish jazz loses its centre of gravity. Musicians lose access. Performances stop. New work cannot be made. The momentum we have built simply evaporates.

Musician Elliot Galvin performs with the launch of a new album at The Cooler

What will be lost

Without The Cooler, Irish jazz loses 50 performances (which are also professionally recorded) per year, 832 rehearsals, and a pipeline that has prepared work for stages including London Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott's, the National Concert Hall, and across Europe.141 musician members lose their workspace. An average of 48 musicians working in the space every week lose access. 2,200 audience members per year lose a 5-star rated venue.

The Cooler also brings tangible economic benefit: €35,000 per year in fees paid to Irish artists; an estimated €19'200 in additional local spend by artists and audiences in cafes, restaurants and shops; nearly €10,000 in accommodation, and consistent footfall that increases public traffic and safety in the area.

Empty stage at The Cooler, ahead of a performance by Aleka with visuals from Maddie Cahil Byrne & Burke

Where We Stand

While we are hoping for the best for The Complex, we must continue to prepare for the worst. If we being forced to vacate on the 14th January, we are ready to rebuild immediately.

We already own everything needed to operate a fully functioning rehearsal and performance space: seating, staging, a grand piano, full backline, lighting, multitrack audio and video systems, production equipment, and insurance. Our small, experienced team can install and activate a new space quickly. We're currently booked through June 2026 with confirmed Irish and international artists.This model is proven, affordable, artist-centred, and strategically vital.

All we need is a room that we can shape and nurture.

David Duffy Quartet play to a packed-out room at The Cooler during a snowstorm

A call to the city

Preparing for the loss of our current home, we are actively seeking an interim home (50–80 capacity) to continue this work while we pursue a permanent solution. We are open to conversations with Dublin City Council, the Arts Office, developers, property owners, and anyone who recognises the importance of safeguarding real cultural infrastructure.

The Cooler is not an abstract idea. It is a functioning system that has already transformed what Irish jazz can achieve. It is crucial to what we do and will remain central to our strategy and our service to musicians and audiences.If you can help, or wish to start a conversation, please reach out to us:
Email to admin @ improvisedmusic.ie
Phone to (087) - 783 -- 3391

The Cooler can and will return, but only if the city helps us find the space it needs to breathe.

Shane O'Donovan performs on drums/electronics in The Cooler Bar for MusicTown

All photos by Louis Scully @louisscullystudio