An ambitious five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, will place our strongest assets – our culture and creative communities – at the centre of public policy.
Enabling creativity in every community is a core pillar of the Creative Ireland Programme.
In 2016, Clare County Council demonstrated their unique capacity to activate and support community engagement and participation in marking the Centenary year through a wide range of arts, culture and heritage initiatives.
Creative Ireland aims to build on this success by leading on the development of a dedicated Culture and Creativity plan for Clare based on the premise that participation in cultural activity drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing.
2017 will see a special focus on children and young people with the specific objective of fast-tracking the Charter for Arts in Education, which will significantly increase access and participation for children in high quality arts and culture experiences.
A network of highly experienced arts officers, heritage officers and librarians has been set up across all 31 local authorities to lead on each county’s Creative Ireland Programme and a series of public meetings will be held over the next four weeks to share ideas, develop collaborations and explore opportunities for increased investment in local arts, culture and creative industries.
Additional funding to support the initiative will be made available through the Creative Ireland Programme in 2017 with the potential for further investment over the next four years. Helen Walsh, Clare County Librarian has been appointed Creative Ireland co-ordinator for Clare County Council.
In addition, all the agencies of Government, including national cultural institutions, state agencies, Government Departments, organisations, individuals and communities will be activated to embed creativity across all aspects of their work – and use that creative potential to foster collective wellbeing and social cohesion.
Clare County Council and the Creative Ireland national team will host an open meeting on Thursday, 30th March to share details about the Programme and to explore opportunities to increase access, engagement and collaboration in the local arts and creative industries in the Templegate Hotel, Ennis at 7.30pm
Speaking in advance of the public meeting, Mr Pat Dowling, Chief Executive, Clare County Council said: “Following on from the success of 1916/2016 and the great response from communities, we look forward to delivering a quality programme for Clare which will bring us up to 2022.
Active participation by communities is at the heart of the Creative Ireland Programme and we invite the public to consultation as a means to hearing about what they would like to see happen in the county to ensure this cultural activity becomes embedded in everyday life”.
Full details of the Creative Ireland Programme are available here.