#savethecomplex
UPDATE FROM THE COMPLEX: 3 ACTIONS TO TAKE!
https://www.thecomplex.ie/post/save-the-complex-3-actions-to-take
Here's a copy of the letter I wrote to the Minister of Finance and all my relevant TDs and Dublin City Council members about the pending closure of The Complex in Smithfield, DCAF's home for 2025, and the venue we've put deposits down on for our slate of 2026 events:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/12/08/una-mullally-were-the-only-place-that-does-it-all-dublin-cannot-let-another-arts-venue-vanish/
Please consider writing your own, it takes only a few minutes and Dublin can't afford to lose another arts venue. €6 million is such a small amount to save such a prominent vital space.
Find your TDs here:
https://www.contactyourtd.ie
Find your Dublin City Council members:
https://councilmeetings.dublincity.ie/mgFindMember.aspx
Minister of Finance Simon Harris:
https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/biographies/simon-harris/
Hello everyone,
My name is Matthew Melis, I'm the owner of Little Deer Comics in Stoneybatter (est 2019) and founder of the quarterly event DCAF, The Dublin Comic Arts Festival (est 2017 with 27 events so far).
I'm taking precious time out of my business' busiest month of the year, with a mountain of stock to sort and orders to process, to ask you to please save The Complex.
It is a beautiful, unique (and sadly rare) arts venue in the Dublin city centre. That is why myself and the ten members of the DCAF committee chose it as a venue in 2025 and 2026 after we lost our previous venue Richmond Barracks in 2024.
Since I founded DCAF in 2017, the event has been forced to find new venues 5 times in 8 years due to arts venues closing in Dublin. In our short life we've lost the following venues:
The Dublin Food Co-Op (closed)
Token (closed, now reopening in a new location, no longer a venue)
The Generator Hostel (still there, no longer a venue)
The Chocolate Factory (still there, no longer a venue)
Richmond Barracks (now a public library, no longer a venue)
To lose The Complex would be devastating to our 8 year old festival and if we can't find a suitable alternative by April, may result to the end of an event that hosts over 100 local artists every season and brings in hundreds and thousands of audience members every event.
From a personal standpoint, the sales Little Deer Comics makes at DCAF events at The Complex are a structural support for my shops' annual income. But our events also expand and grow the audience for local comic creators and art. Which has a mutual beneficial relationship for the entire Irish comic book scene. Publishers and literary agents and artists abroad travel to Dublin for DCAF.
I've read that The Complex is looking a commitment for €6 million in funding to purchase the building. This seems like such a tiny amount for the enormous benefit The Complex brings to the city center arts scene and public realm. A Dublin venue of such prominence that the current President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, chose The Complex to launch her campaign.
At our previous DCAF event on November 30th, an American on holidays stopped to talk to me and tell me what a wonderful surprise it was to stumble upon such a vibrant arts community.
So I'm asking you to please save The Complex. Please commit the necessary funding. Please do not abandon artists by allowing another city centre arts venue to close unnecessarily.
Regards,
Matthew Melis
Updates from The Complex themselves here.