Creative Ireland: Culture, Wellbeing and the Creative Society

The Creative Ireland Programme, a national five-year culture based initiative (2017-2022), places creativity at the centre of public policy. It is built around the themes of identity, culture, and citizenship, and is designed to promote individual, community and national wellbeing.

Kilkenny County Council Cultural Services Team (Heritage, Arts, Libraries,  Architectures and Conservation) have partnered with Creative Ireland to lead on “Creative Communities” – the engagement of citizens with our arts, heritage and culture.

The Kilkenny Culture & Creativity Plan 2017, a one year plan to mark the start of the Creative Ireland programme, prepared by the Cultural Services Section of Kilkenny County Council, was launched by An Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny T.D. in Dublin Castle on 25th May 2017.

An Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny T.D., Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ms. Heather Humphreys,T.D., Cllr Matt Doran Caoithearlach, Kilkenny County Council and Dearbhala Ledwidge, Heritage Officer & County Creative Ireland Co-ordinator, launch the Kilkenny Culture & Creativity Plan 2017 at Dublin Castle on 25th May 2017.

120 people attended an open meeting in Kilkenny in April 2017 to find out more about the Creative Ireland programme. The feedback will inform the 5 year County Culture and Creativity Strategy which will be prepared in 2018.

Participants at the Creative Ireland consultation meeting

Projects funded under Kilkenny Culture & Creativity Plan 2017 include:

Bookville   –   A festival focusing on reading, writing, storytelling, comedy, illustration and the visual arts.

Kilkenny Field Name Project   –   Supporting and training local communities to record and map field names, building on the success of 2016 field names book.

Fairytale Festival   –   A family festival in partnership with BEAT FM.

Bealtaine   –   Festival celebrating arts and creativity as we age including art, song, music, dance, health and wellbeing, local history, talks and demos using the county library network.

McDonagh Famine Experience   –   Community arts project to raise awareness of the human stories at Kilkenny Workhouse, at McDonagh Junction Shopping Centre.

Rhyme Rag    –   Developing a ‘Young Ensemble’ of writers to strengthen the future of the online poetry publication for young people.

Consuming Project   –   Community arts project exploring our relationship with fashion, what clothing means to us and revealing its true cost.

Mayfair Memories   –   Open Day at the Mayfair Ballroom with cultural reminiscences.

Kilkenny Cultural Strategies (Arts, Heritage, Libraries)   –  Public consultation and preparation of County Kilkenny cultural strategies for Arts, Heritage and Library; identify and strengthen links to Creative Ireland Programme.

For more information contact Dearbhala Ledwidge, Creative Ireland Kilkenny Coordinator.  Dearbhala.ledwidge@kilkennycoco.ie

Further information from creative.ireland.ie and ireland.ie