In collaboration with Sligo Environmental Network, Kids’ Own will develop and facilitate the Children’s Manifesto on Climate Action project with children from 3rd class to 6th class in a selected school in County Sligo. The project will take place during May and June 2021.
The project team comprising a Kids’ Own artist and writer, and researcher, anthropologist, and Sligo Environmental Network representative Dr Connie Nell, will work with the selected school to support children and teachers to act as creative co-researchers on climate change and to engage in a creative process that enables children’s views on climate change and climate justice to be heard.
The children’s manifesto on climate change will be available as high-quality digital prints in various sizes which schools and a wide variety of shops and services throughout County Sligo can display. There will also be a high-quality digital print in postcard/letter & envelope format that other children can follow or print out, adding their own voices on climate change, and sending their words to their chosen recipient, for example, government representatives.
These creative outputs, alongside the reflections and observations of Dr Connie Nell on the value of hearing children’s voices on climate change through a creative process, will form the basis of a submission to national and local government, including the forthcoming public consultation on the revised Climate Action Bill (published in March 2021).
Dancing Landscapes of Sligo
This project contains four core elements of which merge together, forming a creative piece that represents Sligo’s cultural landscape, figuratively and literally. The four core elements are original composition music, interpretive dance, modern cinematography, and the landscape of Sligo itself. Using these elements, the project will showcase Sligo’s creativity and environment at five key locations which are Benbulben (Mountain), Streedagh (Coast), The Glens (Forest), Innisfree (Lake), and Sligo Town (Urban).
The locations will frame the creative performances of a choreographed dancer/s from Sarah J Middleton’s ‘Beat It’ Dance School, who will be dancing to an original compositions piece performed by multi-instrumentalist Luke Devaney from ‘The Blue Room Recording Studio’. These performances will be captured by TemperHound Production’s own filming crew, with the assistance of established film director Drew Maitland, using modern cinematography techniques to create a stunning visual display.
The project will involve a small crew and develop the project over virtual means at every possible opportunity. The project hopes to achieve a visually impressive display of various Sligo based artists coming together to express the emotional experience that Sligo county has to offer from both an impressive natural environment and the creativity of the people who belong to it.
Sligo Music and Landscape
The project encompasses a concert inspired by landscape, nature and place. The concert will be produced as part of FleadhFest 2021 and will be directed by Oisin MacDiarmaida and Téada. It will be screened during FleadhFest which is 1st to 9th August.
Music is a unique medium to facilitate a reflection and interpretation of life experiences and how our society has interfaced with landscape and nature. Sligo’s great strength in traditional music heritage is rooted in its landscape, nature and place. Landscape is integral to the culture and particularly so in respect to traditional music; landscape and place inspired many traditional music compositions.
The project will reflect the many linkages of traditional music and Sligo places and will also include newly composed Sligo Ballad and traditional music compositions. It will rekindle connections with nature and emphasise human existence as sustainable only through an appreciation of and value of a larger fabric of life. We are but one species that must live in a state of interconnection with and a dependence on the wider natural world.
The project will seek to reconnect the audience to the natural environment which now more than ever needs to be valued and nurtured. Music can change people’s perspectives; we can use our musical heritage to connect people to the delicate ecosystem of which we are part and the delicate world we must now be proactive to sustain and to face up to and counter climate change.
Aireanach Night Visitor
Aireanach refers to the traditional Irish custom of “Night visiting” whereby music and storytelling would be shared on the roadside in a village or at an individual’s house. Since visiting is off the cards for us all during a global pandemic this project aims to bring the feeling and warmth of a night visit into Sligo resident’s homes. The group plan to execute this through a series of expertly produced films.
This project’s primary aim is to combine the traditional idea of night rambling with modern wanderlust backed by the dulcet tones of the very talented Joe O’Grady who has dedicated his life mastering the South Sligo style of fiddle playing. They aim to capture the breathtaking scenery of Sligo both North and South with a particular focus on what the county looks like at night or dusk with a keen focus on the majestic countryside that surrounds Lough Talt, Co Sligo. This will be voiced with a collection of stories that will be narrated by Margaret Kilcoyne.
Local people will be approached for stories that inspire the imagination at night in the countryside. These stories may have a supernatural element and upon further investigation may connect to our ancient past as Celts and Irish people. In particular, the farming communities of North and South Sligo will be consulted and the group will also be researching how climate change has effected their livelihoods and these encounters will be woven into the filmmaking process.
RIOT Commission for Sligo Town
Sligo County Council Culture Team announces an exciting new commission opportunity on the theme of Re-imagining our Town, RIOT! Proposals are being invited for creative and innovative work produced collaboratively.
Donal Tinney, head of Sligo Culture Team, describes the potential: ‘In the spirit of Creative Ireland, the commission is open to individuals and communities working across the arts, culture and creative industries, and to collaborations between people working across sectors or disciplines representing the broad spectrum of culture and creative industries. This commission is an opportunity to create a new piece of work that will explore and address the issues, themes and possibilities raised by RIOT.’
The commission will form part of the stimulating online RIOT conference broadcasting internationally from Sligo in March 2021. This two-day event, will provide an opportunity to rethink Sligo city and design its future. This future will be shaped by our creativity, our imagination, our innovations, our heritage, our ability to work together – our culture. The event will present working challenges to leading thinkers and creatives, from culture, community and business backgrounds drawn from Sligo, Ireland and International sources.
Further information on the RIOT commission is available at this link :
Deadline for applications is 4pm Monday 14th December 2020
Enquiries can be directed to
Mary McDonagh, Public Art Officer, Sligo County Council, [email protected]
Please include a phone number in your email enquiry
RIOT : Sligo 21 – Tuesday 23/Wednesday 24 March 2021 – Virtual Conference
Four internationally curated conversations probing the role of culture in the development and regeneration of small cities.
All details and booking for this free event: www.riotsligo.ie
The RIOT : SLIGO virtual conference will curate conversations with a cross section of experts and innovators from places and projects that have been transformed through ground breaking collaborations.
Participants will learn of collaborations involving artists, communities, businesses and the arts, culture and creative industries, touching many strata of society and economies.
As each speaker relates their experiences and learning, a key feature of these exchanges will be comments and questions from the virtual audience.
Conversation 1 : The New Paradigm – Creativity, Culture, Society Economy
Conversation 2 : What Are we talking about when we talk about Culture?
Conversation 3 : How do we develop the resource of Culture to the benefit of people, community, and economy?
Conversation 4 : What is Sligo’s POSITION in the 21st century? Who are we now and tomorrow?
The Five Pillars of the Programme:
- Children and Youth: Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child
- Creative Communities: Enabling Creativity in Every Community
- Cultural Investment: Investing in our Creative and Cultural Infrastructure
- Creative Industries: Ireland as a Centre of Creative Excellence
- Global Reputation: A Creative and Cultural Nation
Local Authorities have a crucial role in the local delivery of the Creative Ireland Programme and are exclusively mandated, through their Culture Teams, to deliver Pillar 2 of the programme. This devolution of responsibility for the Creative Ireland Programme to local authorities is inspired by the extraordinary impact of local authority co-ordinated collaborative projects for the 1916 Centenary Programme.
CULTURE AND CREATIVITY STRATEGY 2018-2022
Cosmopolitan yet singular, ancient yet forward-thinking, Sligo enjoys its much-deserved status as the cultural capital of the northwest of Ireland. The county’s rich literary and cultural heritage, which stretches back to ancient times, is an energising force for the citizens of Sligo, as well as a wonderful showcase for visitors from around the globe.
The famous medieval manuscripts the Book of Ballymote, the Great Book of Lecan, and the Yellow Book of Lecan were written in Sligo, and so central to the identity of the county is its literary legacy that the county crest even features an open book with Celtic cross and red rose. Folk heroine Queen Maeve is reputed to be entombed here, and among Sligo’s famous creatives past and present are poet and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats, musical luminaries James Morrison, Westlife and The Conway Sisters, and artist Jack Butler Yeats.
Since obtaining the title of European Capital of Volunteering in 2017, Sligo’s contributions to the Creative Ireland programme, centred around the themes of identity, culture and citizenship, continue to highlight an exemplary approach to creative access for all its citizens, and help to secure this rich heritage for generations to come. For more goto https://www.creativeireland.gov.ie/en/creative-communities/sligo