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 the news of $10 million in state funding 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.
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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 firmly believe the UB James Joyce Museum will attract visitors from around the world, and further strengthen the relationship between the United States and Ireland.”
“We are very grateful to Senator Kennedy and New York State for this significant funding, and for being able to announce it on Bloomsday and help the world celebrate the 101st anniversary of ‘Ulysses,’ ” said James Maynard, curator of UB’s poetry collection, which includes the Joyce items.
UB still needs to raise $3 million for an endowment fund for a curator of the collection, future preservation and acquisition of Joyce materials and programs and exhibitions for the public, Maynard said.
The funding for the museum allows UB to move forward with enlisting an exhibit design consultant and entering the design phase of the museum “hopefully by the end of this calendar year,” Maynard said.
Joyce is best known for writing “Ulysses,” considered one of the most difficult and masterful works of the 20th century, as well as the much shorter “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and his short story collection, “Dubliners.”
Besides being long and containing many purposely puzzling references, “Ulysses” also contains sexual scenes that led it to be banned as “obscene” in Great Britain before it was published in Paris by American bookseller Sylvia Beach in 1922.
UB amassed its Joyce collection under the direction of the first director of the UB libraries, Charles D. Abbott, whose name graces the building that will house the new museum, with help from many benefactors. It includes many materials acquired from Sylvia Beach’s personal collection in 1959 and after her death in 1962.
Researchers and “Ulysses” nerds around the world have sought out UB’s Joyce collection over the years, but a Joyce museum and programming will make Buffalo the place for regular people to go to learn who Joyce was and why his work is so celebrated, Maynard said.
“Our vision of success is to create a vibrant, worldwide destination where a diverse audience can experience James Joyce,” he said. “For years it has been a destination for scholars, but now we will be able to share these renowned materials with a much broader audience and tell the story of Joyce’s life, his works and the enduring legacy of his influence which continues today.”
UB President Satish Tripathi said the state support would not have happened without the advocacy of Kennedy and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“On behalf of our entire university community, I would like to thank Sen. Tim Kennedy for his enduring support of UB and our mission of excellence,” he said. “I would also like to extend my gratitude to Gov, Hochul for her commitment to amplify our impact as New York State’s flagship university.”