Taoiseach welcomes investment in creative communities at launch of 31 Local Authority Culture and Creativity Strategies 2018 - 2022

Ministers Madigan and Murphy congratulate Carlow County Council Culture Team on the publication of their Strategy as part of the Creative Ireland Programme

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD., was joined by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan TD., and Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy TD., today (Wednesday) for the launch of Carlow Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018 - 2022, as part of the all-of-government Creative Ireland Programme.

This ambitious and innovative 5-year Culture and Creativity Strategy has been developed by the Carlow Culture Team and Sinead Dowling, local Creative Ireland Programme coordinator, in consultation with local artists, creatives, cultural and heritage organisations, community groups, the creative industries, centres of education and schools. The Strategy aims to provide meaningful opportunities for citizens and local communities, together with our Local Authorities, to nurture, sustain and facilitate participation in cultural and creative activities.

The launch, which took place at the Irish Architectural Archive in Merrion Square at 4pm, included a performance by acclaimed poet Stephen James Smith of a specially commissioned poem on the transformative power of creativity within local communities. Stephen was the first Spoken Word writer-in-residence for young people at the Dunamaise Arts Centre in November 2017, supported by Laois Arts Office as part of their local Creative Ireland Programme.

Speaking at today’s event, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD, said: “Creative Ireland is all about improving access to culture and creativity in every county nationwide, to improve public wellbeing. The Culture Teams in each local authority have been absolutely essential to fulfilling this aim. We believed that by bringing people across a range of disciplines together in our Local Authorities, we could achieve more than the sum of their individual efforts. The plans being published today are proof that these collective efforts are resulting in projects of real scale and ambition. 

“Through Creative Ireland we are prioritising and promoting arts and culture at a local, national and international level because an active and engaging cultural sector can enrich every aspect of our society and every stage of our lives. Through these Culture and Creative Strategies, we hope more and more people will become involved in artistic and cultural pursuits in their own local area, with all of the vitally important social, and indeed economic, consequences that follow.”

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan TD., said: “I would like to sincerely thank the local Creative Ireland co-ordinators, the CEO’s, Directors of Services and all the Culture Teams in our Local Authorities who have been working so hard in recent months to help us realise some of the key ambitions in the Creative Ireland programme.

I believe that as communities across the country undergo significant change, we are beginning to recognise that how a community understands itself, celebrates itself and expresses itself are major contributing factors in its ability to withstand economic, political, and cultural winds of change and transition. Arts, culture, heritage and in particular creativity are now being viewed, not only as amenities to improve the quality of life, but as a foundation upon which the future of our communities rests. Arts and creative activities can profoundly affect the ability of a community not only to survive over time, but to thrive.”

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Authority EoghanMurphy TD., said: “Our Local Authorities are the primary instruments of community engagement and activation. By investing in our communities, through the Creative Ireland Programme, my Department is empowering each Local Authority to do what they do best - to deliver appropriate, citizen focused and engaging programmes.

For any place to be truly successful as a community, people must feel not only that they belong, but also that they can actively take part in the creation, management and continued success of that place. The Creative Ireland Programme, with joint investment from both my and Minister Madigan’s Department are together, empowering you to collaborate, to make, to visit, to take part in wide and varied creative and innovative processes that are vital today and in the future.”

Some of the special initiatives prioritised as part of Carlow Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018 - 2022 include:

  • Creative Ireland Carlow Open Call 2018/19, where 16 new, meaningful collaborative projects have been funded across the county. They are 16 outstanding projects to name a few, we have the Drummond Eco-Bog Project that will be facilitated by artists and extends to schools in that local area, we also see a photographic and social oral history project of the Royal Oak Bagenalstown and we are supporting a diverse inter-cultural project in Tullow around the ritual of making tea.

  • Arts Office in Collaboration with VISUAL – Public Engagement and participation events for the following forthcoming exhibition, New Work by Marjetica Potrĉ

  • Supporting cultural events taking place across County Carlow including, A Day with the Duckett’s and Carlow Gareden Festival through Carlow Tourism, PenFest through Carlow County Libraries and Féile an Fhómhair through Glór Cheatharlach.

Kathleen Holohan CEO of Carlow County Council said: “Placing Culture and Creativity at the heart of Public Policy is at the core of the Creative Ireland Programme which has been adopted here in Carlow through our Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018-2022. The Creative Ireland Carlow programme has already afforded unique opportunities and seen astonishing results for our communities across County Carlow. We look forward to its development and delivery over the coming years and with our communities we will enable the vision of the Carlow Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018-2022 to be realised which is to create a future with culture and creativity at the centre to drive and promote quality of life, happiness, health, well-being and economic prosperity through a people led programme that enables and entwines culture and creativity in everyday lives to the benefit of all”.

 

Full details of the Carlow Local Authority Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018 – 2022 can be found at https://creative.ireland.ie or at www.Carlow.ie

ENDS

 

Media queries:

Kelly Mooney,

Creative Ireland Carlow Project Assistant,

kmooney@carlowcoco.ie

059-9136203

Notes to Editors:

Creative Ireland is an all of Government five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which places creativity at the centre of public policy. It is built around five pillars: Enabling theCreative Potential of Every Child; Enabling Creativity in Every Community; Investing in our Creative and Cultural Infrastructure; Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in MediaProduction; Unifying our Global Reputation. Each of the 31 Local Authority Culture and Creativity Strategies are available to download at creative.ireland.ie

Since the launch of the Creative Ireland Programme in December 2016, every Local Authority has established a Culture Team which includes arts officers, heritage officers, librarians, museum and gallery curators, led by a local Creative Ireland coordinator. Contact details for the coordinators can be found at creative.ireland.ie/network. Carlow Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018 – 2022 was developed by the Carlow County Council Culture Team and builds on available research and best practice in local, regional and international policy as well as existing culture related strategies relevant to County Carlow.

The Creative Ireland Programme has invested a total of €5.8m in 2017 and 2018 across the 31 Local Authorities as part of Pillar 2 of the Programme. This includes €1m in 2017 and €2.8m (including Cruinniú na nÓg) in 2018 from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and €1m in 2017 and 2018 from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.