Among the earliest acquisitions in the gallery's collection are casts of classical Greek and Roman statues by
Antonio Canova. These were brought to Cork from the
Vatican in 1818. The Royal Cork Institution acquired these works from the Society of Fine Arts in Cork, who had been given the casts by the Prince Regent (later
George IV of the United Kingdom). He in turn had received them from
Pope Pius VII, who had commissioned Antonio Canova to make a set of plasters from statues in the Vatican. Among the works are casts of the
Belvedere Torso,
Apollo Belvedere and
Laocoön and His Sons. Due to the gallery's association with the Cork School of Art (later known as the
Crawford College of Art and Design), some items in the museum collection are by staff and students of the school. These include works by
James Brenan (who was headmaster of the school from 1860 to 1889) and students such as
Henry Jones Thaddeus and
William Gerard Barry. Other items in the collection include works by sculptors such as
John Hogan and
Eilis O'Connell, stained-glass artists like
Harry Clarke and
Evie Hone, painters including
William Orpen (a student of James Brenan),
Jack B. Yeats, and
Nano Reid, as well as photographer
Bob Carlos Clarke. The gallery hosts education and outreach programmes, and manages temporary and travelling exhibitions. == Redevelopment ==