THE Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’ Brien TD, have announced a funding allocation of €175,161 for the implementation of Creative Ireland initiatives in Limerick.
The Creative Ireland Initiative was launched in 2017 and it has received an investment of €21 million from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
This investment has enabled local authorities to deliver 5,700 community-led creative projects to support their respective Culture and Creativity Strategies 2018-2022, along with Cruinniú na nÓg, the national day of free creativity for children and young people that takes place in June.
The investments in local authorities throughout the country will support creative projects that will connect people, creativity and wellbeing in 2022.
During 2021 in Limerick, the Creative Ireland Culture and Creativity Team delivered 51 projects including:
- Dance Limerick continued to deliver their Creativity in Older Age project by bringing several short dance works to ten residential care homes in the county. The project enabled Dance Limerick to expand its civic role within the county, and to bring dance out of the studio and into care homes providing residents of care homes with a high quality experience of dance and social interaction with artists.
- Limerick Printmakers (LP) and Limerick’s Men’s Sheds collaborated through a series of introductory print workshops that celebrated the reopening of the Men’s Shed after lockdown, the project culminated in an exhibition of the participant’s work.
Minister Catheriene Martin spoke about the excellent work that the Creative Ireland Programme was doing, saying; ”I am very pleased to continue to support the excellent work undertaken by local authorities on behalf of the Creative Ireland Programme.
Every Creative Ireland project delivered by our local authority teams harnesses the creative potential of our people and their communities. Their work is the cornerstone of the Creative Ireland Programme and brings together local expertise in arts, heritage, libraries, enterprise and community engagement in a meaningful and inspired way.
As we emerge from the last two years, I know that they will once again deliver creative programmes that can build resilience, foster personal confidence and sustain their communities”.
Minister Darragh O’Brien also chimed in on the Creative Ireland Programme. “Local authorities have extensive expertise across heritage, arts, libraries as well as vital local relationships.
I firmly believe that culture plays a key role in local government’s work in creating great places to live and work. Creative Communities takes this a step further. Culture and creativity can be part of responses to social isolation, to creating a sense of place and to integrating new communities;” he said.
