Invitation to Collaboration has been funding collaborative projects around the country since 2017. It supports regional and national initiatives in the field of local-authority-led arts development. The scheme is rooted in the policies set out in the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy (2016-2025), Making Great Art Work: Leading the Development of the Arts in Ireland and in A Framework for Collaboration: An Agreement Between the Arts Council and the County and City Management Association. The emphasis is placed on supporting partnerships that focus on developing projects, resources or services that are ambitious and are testing new ground.
Circus? Bingo!
Fidget
Feet Aerial Dance will deliver intergenerational creative residencies in
Kildare, Tipperary and Donegal that will result in local sharings. This will
involve the Soar Up programme, Open Days, a community engagement officer, and 3
reflect and response sessions. Fidget Feet are building on the work developed with Bingo Wings (2019)
and House! (2022) to devise an intergenerational community engagement model
that delves into the locality and meets the community face on, challenging
notions of age, physical capability, and what it means to engage in the arts.
Participants are engaged in multidisciplinary workshops including dance,
theatre, circus skills, and bingo across the 15 weeks.
"It is always exciting for a local authority to break new ground and the Arts Council Invitation to Collaboration scheme has enabled us to do that with Circus? Bingo! We look forward to bringing this amazing show to Kildare in August, and seeing how the local residency informs that. It is a great opportunity for local creatives to get involved. Our project partners are long-term collaborators and we hope to learn from their experiences also. It goes without saying that we expect lots of fun along the way." Lucina Russell (Arts Officer for Kildare County Council).
- Lead Partner: Kildare County Council
- Partners: Tipperary County Council, Donegal County Council and Fidget Feet
Social Practice Toolkit
Taking place throughout May and June, this exciting programme — Social Practice Toolkit: Children and Youth — is aimed at artists and arts workers who are keen to exchange knowledge and upskill in collaborative and participatory arts with children and young people.
Social Practice
is an artistic approach that routinely deals with participatory methodologies
that advocate autonomy and active input into the matters of importance to ‘affected’
stakeholders.
- Lead Partner: Leitrim County Council
- Partners: Cork City Council
Art
in the Landscape – Converge
This project phase will build on the interest and develop on the connections made
through the Art in the Landscape Report (2020) and Seminar (2022). It will focus on aspects of Art
in the Landscape that are specific to each locality, involving the
festivalisation of the project through artist led projects and in person
events.
- Lead Partner: Offaly County Council
- Partners: Visual Artists Ireland and Mayo County Council
POP
– Planning for Outdoor Performance
Outdoor Performance has been identified as being an area of strategic significance
to local arts development. This project will Research & develop a framework which will
inform policy for the outdoor staging of professional, community &
voluntary events. There will be curation and delivery of a
pilot multi-disciplinary programme of outdoor events in collaboration with national
resource organisations, artistic partners and communities.
- Lead Partner: Roscommon County Council
- Partners: Cork County Council, Kerry County Council, Laois County Council, Tipperary County Council, ISCACS, Poetry Ireland, Music Network and Theatre Forum