Holger Lonze 2 Poetry Day Church Island 2019 Image Credit Valerie O'Sullivan
Creative Places / Cumas Ceantar
An opportunity for places to newly benefit from sustained arts
investment to build local arts programmes with local people.
There are now 19 locations around Ireland that have received Creative Places funding.
Each Creative Place has a coordinator or researcher who, alongside their community, explore, discuss and plan a range of brilliant creative and participatory projects for local people to take part in and enjoy. The approach is inclusive and diverse and
rooted in socially engaged arts practice and community development principles. It builds on existing cultural strengths and is led by community participation and ideas and supported by artists.
The new Creative Places for 2023 were Enniscorthy (Wexford) Balbriggan (Fingal), MacUíllíam (Tallaght), and Uíbh Ráthaigh (Kerry) for three-year programmes. While Edgeworthstown (Longford), Ballyconnell (Cavan), and Ballaghaderreen (Roscommon) received
research awards.
In 2024 the following locations were awarded Creative Places funding. Darndale (Dublin), Athy (Kildare County Council), Tuam (Galway) and Edenderry (Offaly) who have completed their Creative Places three-year award have been awarded funding to continue
into the next phase of their development. Ballyhoura Development CLG (Limerick) and Cork City Council have both been awarded a Research and Development Award,
The Arts Council-led programme is underpinned by commitments in its Making Great Art Work 2016–2025 strategy and in the Place,
Space and People Spatial Strategy
Creative Places Tuam
Tuam residents, artists and guests take part in an evening tour of Tuam
by local artists Jojo Hynes and Midie Corcoran, part of the Creative Places and
Create Networking Event 2022. Photo by James Ryan for Creative Places Tuam.
Creative Places Tuam is led by Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts. Since 2020, Creative Places Tuam has worked with the residents of the town and hinterlands, offering a series of residencies, artist developmental opportunities,
mentorships and local training opportunities, all designed to build capacity for artists and communities to work collaboratively together. This is facilitated by community conversations, a space for real conversation and listening to take place that
can and does directly impact and inform the programme of work. Recent highlights for the programme include the launch of new artist residencies with both local and international artists, including one in partnership with Create and Galway Arts Centre;
offering individual and group artists’ support and training; and hosting the Creative Places and Create Networking event in Tuam.
You can follow its progress and activities here.
Creative Places Athy
KARE, photo by Aishling Hyland Photograph
About the image:
KARE http://www.kare.ie/ service users worked with artist Emily
Rainsford on the theme of "home". The theme showcased the ideas and
interpretations of the diverse group to highlight their community, history, and
home. The group explored different aspects of mixed media, including, collage,
paint and clay, upcycled and recycled materials in making art. Athy Library
services supported the space for collaboration.
Now entering year three, Creative Places Athy is developing its programme which is informed by the rich arts and culture landscape across Athy Municipal District in south Kildare. Following a year of arts project award allocations, harnessing relationships,
and identifying communities of practice, the benefits of this funding from the Arts Council and Kildare County Council aims to increase participation and leave a legacy of participation in the arts. It will include strengthening projects already in
the incubation stage and the development of new and existing collaborations for meaningful arts opportunities. Coordinator Eilish Langton is excited to continue conversations from the local to the global in supporting the artistic and creative ambitions
of the people and place.
Website: Here | Facebook: Here
Creative Places Balbriggan, Dublin
Artists & residents gather at a Reclaiming the Arts event 2022, in ‘The Warehouse’, Balbriggan. Photo Credit Fintan O’Toole
"Our town is full of creative, culturally diverse groups of
people and is truly representative of modern Ireland; this award provides an
amazing opportunity to bring the community together through creativity and help
make Balbriggan a Destination for the Arts," said Eamonn Donlyn, co-founder of the Scéal Arts Collective in
Balbriggan.
"North County Dublin, and specifically, Balbriggan, with its diverse and young population, is bursting at the seams with creativity." said Michael Dawson, Co-founder of the Irish Institute of Music and Song. "This award will help realise that creativity
and show how the arts can be used to foster stronger, more inclusive communities. It comes at the right time with the Lark Concert Hall about to open, Balbriggan is set to be one of the most exciting artistic towns in Ireland."
Creative Places Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon
Photo by Anna King of a community group who attended one of her PLACEWAYS events exploring local heritage sites
Creative Places Ballaghaderreen R&D is focused on local engagement, through conversations and developing relationships with different groups, artists and individuals in the area. The project involves three artist-researchers from different disciplines
Dr. Anna King, Nollaig Molloy and Julie Sharkey and coordinator Mary Smyth designing a mix of targeted workshops, open events and artist meet ups to explore local interests, inform a developing programme and open dialogues on what a Creative Ballaghaderreen
could be.
“Roscommon County Council Arts
Office is thrilled to receive funding for Creative Places R&D. We are
working as part a diverse group of committed partners to consider investment in
community-focused arts research to address the current lack of arts
infrastructure & provision in Ballaghaderreen. Our vision is to Build a
Better Ballaghaderreen where the arts and creativity are central to a vibrant,
diverse and proud community.” Rhona McGrath, Arts Officer
Quote from our partners: “We
believe the award will contribute to a wider, diverse effort to improve local
opportunities to engage in the arts and in particular to better understand the
evolving and new community profile in the Ballaghaderreen area and its
particular interests and needs in relation to arts and culture.” Creative Places Ballaghaderreen Working Group, and ongoing Steering Group.
Project Email: creativeplacesballagh@gmail.com
Project Website: https://www.roscommoncoco.ie/coco/en/services/community/arts-office/creative-places.html
Instagram: @creative_placesballaghaderreen
Facebook: Creative Places Ballaghaderreen
Creative Places Ballyconnell, Co Cavan
Ballyconnell Panoramic View
Photo credit: Jago Studio Ireland
Ballyconnell Community Centre and the communities of the wider area are thrilled to be selected for a Creative Places Research and Development Award. This will allow us to work together and gain a deep understanding of the potential and challenges of
this area considering the townscape, the physical environment and the people who inhabit this place in Northwest County Cavan. Our ambition is to create connection and opportunity and understand the possibilities for arts participation and sense
of place in Ballyconnell.
Creative Places Baltinglass
Baltinglass. Image Credit : Wicklow Heritage Office
Creative Places Baltinglass is led by Wicklow County Council’s Arts Office. Baltinglass is a small rural town located in West Wicklow bordering counties Kildare and Carlow. It is steeped in history and rich natural beauty. Built on the river Slaney,
the original settlement centred around the town's main market square.
Creative Places Baltinglass will promote inclusive opportunities to celebrate Baltinglass people and place. The programme development will ensure that there will be a mechanism of listening and responding to the community and artists at it's core. It
will celebrate the natural heritage and beauty of the town and support social regeneration alongside wider infrastructural regeneration plans. A wide range of arts and creative experiences underpinned by the principles of socially engaged arts practice
and community development will be delivered over a three year period.
https://www.creativeplacesbaltinglass.ie/
Creative Places Bagenalstown
Angela Keogh & John McKenna and the first Culture Night in Bagenalstown hosted by Creative Places. Credit Michael O'Rourke)
Supported by Carlow Arts Service, Creative Places Bagenalstown continues to develop, in collaboration with project partners, a culturally diverse creative programme, centered on capacity building, collaboration, sustainability, and community development
principles.
2022 saw the first ever Bagenalstown Culture Night event held in the local library, hosted by Creative Places Bagenalstown. Creative Places Bagenalstown, in November 2022, was invited to Creative Places Tuam, the National Agency for Collaborative
Arts (CREATE) and Arts Council event to share the vision for the programme and connect with the National Network of Creative Places. The programme continues to work with local groups, schools and artists to develop and programme people-centred
creative events for 2023 and beyond.
Creative Places Darndale
Sunrise over Darndale, June 2021’ Image credit Julien Behal: Photography
Creative Places Darndale was awarded to Sphere 17 for the area of Darndale in north Dublin in June 2021. The purpose of Creative Places Darndale is to weave the arts into everyday life in Darndale. Over the course of three years, this will be achieved
by building on the variety of art forms and activities that are already present, introducing new creative and artistic experiences where they are not present, increasing participation and leaving a legacy of participation in the arts. Creative Places
Darndale is coordinated by Muirne Bloomer.
creativeplacesdarndale.ie
Creative Places Edenderry
Community Art Day, Creative Places Edenderry. Photo: Sharon Regan
'Creative Places, Edenderry works with people of all ages and backgrounds to create a richer, more inclusive, and more cohesive creative community in the town and surrounding areas. Over the course of the first three years of the project (2021-2024) there
have been creative opportunities for professional artists, non-professional artists, community groups, and individuals. The project is being developed collaboratively by the people of Edenderry with community ownership and sustainability at the heart
of what we do together.
To date there have been 3 full years of activities, events, projects, meetings and training sessions. 4204 adults have attended activities and 1068 children. There have been 261 Community Workshops, we have worked with 62 different Artists and Facilitators
and there have been 8 large scale events. We have awarded 6 Creative Grants, 7 Seed Funding Grants and 7 Artist Commissions. There have been 16 Community Consultations, information and network sessions, 9 Steering Group Meetings, 7 Community Forum
Meetings, 7 Community Training Sessions and 10 information sessions about guidance and support on funding applications.
In Year 4 we will build on the previous 3 Years of the project which were themed; Connect, Cultivate, Celebrate to focus on training, mentoring and the creation of a ‘toolkit’ that the Community can draw on for years to come. The theme for Year
4 is: Empower and Embed. All Creative Places, Edenderry projects are firmly rooted in Socially Engaged Art and Community Development Principles - we will begin to be more ‘up front’ about these themes and explore them in a wide range of ways
with the Community, ensuring that they have a firm grasp on these principles moving forward into the next phase of the project and beyond.'
https://creativeplacesedenderry.ie/
https://www.facebook.com/cpedenderry
@Creative
Places Edenderry
https://soundcloud.com/creative-places-edenderry
Creative Places Edgeworthstown
The Creative Places Research Award provides a wonderful opportunity for Edgeworthstown to dream out loud and activate a diverse and creative citizenry. This award allows communities in Edgeworthstown to build upon recent achievements and broaden the spectrum
of creative possibilities to make our town a more inclusive and colourful place to live.
'Creative Cruinniú'. Pictured: Creative Places Co-Ordinator Déirdre Orme, Longford Arts Officer Shane Crossan, members of STRAD with Davóg Rynne and Steering group member Pádraig Brady
The image above is of Creative Places Edgeworthstown 'Creative Cruinniú' a community gathering held in The Green in April 2024. The evening of Edgeworthstown hospitality was a lovely event, accumulating in poetry by Pauline Flood, storytelling, an eclectic mix
of song and music with Davóg Rynne and trad by STRAD.
Creative Places Enniscorthy
Creative Places Enniscorthy is led by the Wexford Arts Centre, Presentation Arts Centre and a community steering committee.
'This award will be transformational for
Enniscorthy, and I look forward to working with the Creative Places team and
Enniscorthy Municipal District over the coming years, putting arts and
creativity at the heart of the development of this town.' Liz Burns, Wexford County Arts Officer.
Over the summer the programme will be getting established, a coordinator will be appointed and conversations with the community will get underway. Further details will be announced by Wexford
Arts Centre.
Creative Places Loughlinstown
/ Ballybrack
Working on a research and
development phase and led by Southside Partnership this is “an amazing
opportunity for the community to discover how creative practice and public
spaces will improve social inclusion, wellbeing and connections for everyone in
the community. We believe this key investment in arts and culture will
encourage and promote vibrant, collective community participation that will
have far reaching ripples long into the future.” Sandra King
Creative Places Tipperary Town
 Creative Places 2024 _LIO8364 (1).jpg "Creative Places Tipperary Town")
Creative Places Tipperary Town. Photo: Caitriona Kenny
Youth Work Ireland Tipperary is the lead partner of Creative Places Tipperary Town, with many other community organisations also involved as part of a town Task Force. Leisa Gray, the Project Coordinator, began work in November 2022 and has since been
listening, learning and developing plans with artists, community organisations and members of the public.
The Project Mission is to support and develop artists and creative practitioners to collaborate with those who live and work in Tipperary Town to explore identity, bring vibrancy to the place and high quality arts opportunities to the people. The Project
goals include a socially engaged arts initiatives, an Arts and Health Residency, participatory arts activities and the development of the local creative sector.
So far, the project has developed new relationships, identified and begun work with local creatives, and run targeted projects, including work with the Irish Wheelchair Association, with teenagers, and Knockanrawley Resource Centre. A Creative Places
Space has been developed in a town centre shop and is exhibiting local artists' work. The project is working towards a lasting legacy of creativity in Tipperary Town.
As Donal Kelly, CEO of Youth Work Ireland Tipperary, states,
“This represents a wonderful and much-needed opportunity for
Tipperary Town that will connect people with artists, to explore, imagine, and
create different futures. Creative Places will bring opportunity and vibrancy
to Tipperary Town and amazing arts experiences to the people".
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Creative Places West Cork Islands
Image credit: 'Green Rope' Artist, William Bock. Photo Credit: Peter Prendergast
Creative Places West Cork Islands is an ambitious three-year culture-based community development programme for and about the West Cork islands. Creative Places aims to connect with people, artists, and places, to allow ideas to develop into creative actions
that are inspired by and enrich our island communities. Creative Places is about harnessing the power of creativity, Culture
& the Arts to support and sustain the Island communities of West Cork. We are now inviting people from the islands and surrounding areas to contact us to propose ideas or areas of interest that could benefit social and cultural life in your area.
More information about this invitation to participate can be found at creativeplaceswci.ie & instagram.com/cpwestcorkislands
Green Rope is a participatory, environmental, and
trans-local project and is an ongoing collaboration with the community of
Sherkin Island. The artist invited the island community into a process of
crafting a giant rope by hand, made from wild plants growing on the island. The
rope project is rooted in the simple act of working with our hands, together
and with the nature we have around us.
Creative Places Uíbh Ráthaigh
Scoil Mhichíl Naofa Baile an Sceilg ag obair ar Currach Ballaghaderreen
Photo credit: Fr Patsy Lynch
Creative Places Uíbh Ráthaigh is led by Comhchoiste Ghaeltacht Uíbh Ráthaigh. “We are delighted to have this opportunity to reinvigorate community creativity in Gaeltacht Uíbh Ráthaigh. The area has deep wells of culture and this research and development
will help us to renew and refresh them for and with the whole community. We look forward to writing new stories together and to developing new ways of working together so that we can look to the future with confidence.” — Áine Uí Bheoláin, Manager
Tá ríméad ar phobal Uíbh Ráthaigh go mbeidh maoiniú ann ón gComhairle Ealaíon le haghaidh forbairt na n-ealaíon sa cheantar go ceann trí bliana fén scéim Cumas Ceantair.
Creative Places Mac Uílliám
Tallaght Community Arts, Creative Places MacUíllíám. Photo: Jonathan Stokes
Creative Places MacUíllíám is led by Tallaght Community Arts, in partnership with South Dublin County Arts Office. The project aims to reach out to the local community through working with MacUíllíam Development Action Group and Youth Arts Action Group
to identify and support the kind of cultural activities that are valued by the residents of MacUíllíam. Our eighteen-month active research project has brought participatory arts to the community with range of projects: theatre research for early
years, arts camps for young people aged 7-19 years, dance performance & workshops, a ‘trashcatchers’ parade and felt making workshops.
‘The
Creative Places funding has been a fantastic opportunity for us to work in
partnership with residents of the MacUíllíam Estate to engage in creative
collective actions, to build capacity, to change their social and built
environment. It continues to be a vital resource to increase participation
among key residents in mapping, planning, and delivering much-needed activities
and programmes to all residents.’ — Tony Fegan, Director of Tallaght Community Arts.
Tallaght Community Arts and the residents of MacUilliam, are delighted to be awarded the 3 Year Creative Places Funding. The award gives the community a unique opportunity to celebrate through the arts the talents, experiences and energies of the diverse
communities living on the estate
https://tallaght-arts.ie/creative-places-macuillium/
Creative Places Shannon
Chinese Dragon Dancers at Clare Mela – Photographer: Mark Sean Spark of Memories
Creative Places Shannon is led by the Arts Office of Clare County Council. “The pioneers who established Shannon are now the older generation, a generation that has shown resilience and fortitude. Shannon is a town of welcomes, it welcomed and developed
new communities from near and far when it was established, and this warmth is evident today in its community spirit. This spirit now gets to be explored creatively through the Creative Places initiative and we look forward to seeing our creative and
cultural ambitions realised” – Siobhan Mulcahy, Arts Officer.
Creative Places Shannon have appointed a Coordinator and a Researcher who are working with the Shannon Community to establish what the particular needs are for Shannon in relation to Arts and Culture. Creative Places is an opportunity for Shannon to
build local arts programmes which will benefit the communities living in the town. The Research and Development award is supporting the community to explore and discuss creative activities that will enhance community collaboration, community wellbeing
and inclusion.
https://clarearts.ie/programme-areas/creative-placemaking/
Creative Places Kilfinane
Kilfinane Community Groups with Ballyhoura Development and Michael Flanagan
Creative Places Kilfinane is led by Ballyhoura Development CLG, who, alongside a creative practitioner, will implement a participative community lead research and development project in the months ahead. This will build on the wonderful work of the community
organisations and events that already take place including Hearsay International Audio Festival, Kilfinane Community Council, Ballyhoura Comhaltas (CCE), the Old Chapel Rooms, the Kilfinane Traditional Skills and Arts and Crafts group, the Ballyhoura
Bears and Ballyhoura Walking Festival and the newly established conversation club to name but a few.
Padraig Casey, CEO of Ballyhoura Development stated, "We are
thrilled to receive this Creative Places Research and Development Award from
Arts Council Ireland. Ballyhoura Development is committed to integrating
socially engaged and collaborative arts practice across our strategic approach
to community development. We are excited about the opportunity this presents to
create a dynamic and vibrant sustainable artistic and creative community here
in Kilfinane in the Ballyhoura region."
Etain McCooey Limerick City and County Arts Officer “proudly
supports the award and Ballyhoura Development CLG in development of a plan for
Kilfinane that can create a dynamic and vibrant sustainable artistic and
creative community in the Ballyhoura region that both serves and is supported
by all in the community”
For more information please contact the Local, Place and Public Art Team at local@artscouncil.ie