Wow!
The Laois Creative Ireland Programme for 2019 is impressive.
It’s exciting, it’s extensive, it’s engaging and there are events taking place between now and the year end, right across the county.
There are over 30 different projects, and when I say different I mean different, in the pipeline. Some of them are large scale collaborations, others are just individuals doing their thing.
The programme of events under the Creative Ireland Laois banner got to bask in the sunshine this week when they were officially launched in the Laois Arthouse in Stradbally.
The energy and enthusiasm was infectious and if the launch is anything to go by then there are good things in store on the arts, heritage and cultural scene for the remainder of the year.
Two very different performances bookended he launch. Both based on lived-in life experiences, they could not possible have been in starker contrast and in a sense really summed up the diversity and expanse of the Creative Ireland spectrum of events here in Laois.
Paddy Fitzpatrick from Ballyfin gave a rendition of one of his songs, ‘Conlawn’ a boyhood reminiscence of growing up in the Slieve Blooms. He will be launching a 4-track CD later in September, entitled ‘Slieve Bloom Sean Nós’. His singing in Stradbally already stirred up quite a bit of interest.
Also causing a stir with a more contemporary rendering of her poetry was Glory Anumudu Jatkowska. Glory is a young gay mixed race woman whose life experience shapes her world view and her work, a fusion of feminism and activism she says born of a mixture of racism and discrimination she has encountered.
It was powerful stuff, albeit extremely different from Glory and Paddy and yet both seemed to slot perfectly in to the theme of this year’s programme, ‘A Sense of Place’.
It was interesting then that national director of the Creative Ireland programme, Tania Banotti when she spoke about their objectives had this to say: “For us the sweet spot is to support the kind of projects that might otherwise fall between the cracks.”
She wanted Creative Ireland to be a catalyst for creative communities and to nurture the satisfaction, enjoyment and wellbeing that brings.
She was full of praise too for the Laois arts and cultural team and they manner in which they co-operated and collaborated to bring these projects to fruition. It isn’t like that in all other counties she observed.
This team effort was touched on my the Laois Arts Officer, Muireann Ní Chonaill who commended her colleagues in the local authorities Arts Office for their efforts, as well as Catherine Casey the Heritage Officer who was on hand and others such as the Library service, Dunamaise Arts Centre and Music Generation all playing their part.
A new role has been created to co-ordinate the programme and there was a warm welcome for Ann Lawlor the Creative Ireland Laois Project Manager.
Muireann Ní Chonaill spoke of the importance of culture and creativity being an integral part of our lives and paraphrasing she said: “Art is life, only better.”
The new Mayor of Laois and chairman of Laois County Council, Cllr Willie Aird was enthused by it all.
He wanted to know where he could get Paddy Fitzpatrick’s CD and marvelled at how far the county had come in terms of supporting and recognising the importance of arts and culture since he first came involved in public life back in 1979.
“This is absolutely brilliant,” he pronounced, gushing in his praise of the Council’s arts and heritage staff for their tremendous work. “We must keep alive and hold on to our heritage,” proclaimed Cllr Aird to unanimous applause and approval.
Cllr Aird identified the turning point for arts in the county when the Council decided, following lengthy debate mind up, to come up with the matching funding for the Dunamaise Arts Centre when capital funding was provided by the then Minister for the Arts, Culture and Heritage, Michael D Higgins in the mid-1990’s. The rest as they say is history.
And Laois has plenty more to look forward to in Creative Ireland backed projects across the county in Clonaslee, Mountrath, Durrow, Portlaoise, Ballinakill, Rathdowney, Mountmellick and Abbeyleix.
There will be loads of stuff in the libraries across the county and there are numerous schools participating in dedicated Creative Ireland events.
There are projects undertaken too by the Laois School of Music and Music Generation Laois as well as exciting plans to establish a new Film Office in Laois.
This weekend the Sonas Arts Boutique Festival, organised by Ollie Plunkett and Co takes place in Stradbally; there is the Power of Words Festival coming up in Abbeyleix from August 23-25 with Amanda Kelly and her team at the helm; a spoken word event in the Garden at the Pantry being put together by Downtown Portlaoise and Ann Marie Kelly, ‘If the Walls had Ears is on September 13; Mountmellick Embroidery have a project underway entitled ‘Thread Softly Through Ireland; and back in the Slieve Bloom mountains there is an ambitious conservation of Kilmanman Medieval Church underway, with the annual ecumenical service scheduled for the pattern day for St Manman this year on August 5.
The list of creative stuff in Laois just goes on and on and the strategy runs from 2018 to 2022 just there is lots more in store.
Watch this space!
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