Cork's public gallery houses a small but excellent permanent collection covering the 17th century through to the modern day, though the works on display change from year to year. Highlights include paintings by Sir John Lavery, Jack B Yeats and Nathaniel Hone, and Irish women artists Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone.

　　The Sculpture Galleries contain snow-white plaster casts of Roman and Greek statues, created under the direction of Antonio Canova in the early 19th century, and gifted to King George IV by Pope Pius VII in 1818. London's Royal Academy lacked the space to store or exhibit them, so they were given to Cork 'to enable the artists of the sister kingdom to establish an adequate school of study'.