CLARE County Council and the Creative Ireland national team are to host an open meeting on Thursday, at the Temple Gate Hotel at 7.30pm.
On the evening, they will share details about the Creative Ireland programme and look at exploring opportunities to increase access, engagement and collaboration in the local arts and creative industries. Enabling creativity in every community is a core pillar of the Creative Ireland programme, an ambitious five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which aims to place culture and creative communities at the centre of creative policy.
Creative Ireland is to lead on the development of a dedicated culture and creativity plan for the county, based on the premise that participation in cultural activity drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing. This year 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 experienced arts officers, heritage officers and librarians has been set up across the country to lead on each county’s Creative Ireland Programme. County librarian Helen Walsh has been appointed the Creative Ireland co-ordinator for Clare County Council.
Speaking in advance of the public meeting on March 30, Pat Dowling, chief executive of 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 the 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.”
Creative Ireland is the Government’s legacy programme for Ireland 2016. It is built around five strategic pillars these are enabling the creative potential of every child, enabling creativity in every community, investing in creative and cultural infrastructure, making Ireland a centre of excellence in media production and unifying Ireland’s global reputation.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.