Creative Ireland

^{Cork Words by Cork City Library Service and featured writers. Image credit: Stuart Coughlan, 2023}

We will encourage and enable communities and individuals to remember, celebrate and share their heritages, cultures, abilities and identity. We will find new and creative ways to understand and capture our past and to explore and respond to our present, reflecting the rich diversity of our expanded, evolving city and its people. By doing so, we will uncover the connections that bind us now and for the future as individuals and as communities.

^{ShandonUrban Orienteering Trail by Sheelagh Broderick with Abarta Heritage. Photo credit: Regina Walsh, 2021}

Through close and creative engagement with our communities, we will re-imagine our city for those who live, work and visit here. We will illuminate new and familiar places and spaces across our city. We will inspire new understanding and deepen a sense of pride and of belonging. We will give visible expression to our communal values and to what makes us unique and compelling as a creative city. We will transform how people think of and engage with Cork City.  

^{Young Print Collective supported by Cork Printmakers and Cork Migrant Centre. Photo credit: Clare Keogh, 2022}

We will advance the culture, environment and conditions that will promote creative enterprise and innovation, and that will support our local creative industries. We will leverage existing strengths, support the development of new skills and capacities, as well as the creative clusters and partnerships that drive success. By doing so, we will amplify our profile as a creative city and enhance the potential of Cork City’s creative economy.

^{Rebel Streets with Cork Community Art Link and Cork Traveller Visibility Group. Photo credit: Framework Films, 2021}

We will champion the role of culture and creativity in supporting the health, wellbeing and development of individuals and communities within the city.  We will respond to the needs of people across all generations and abilities, paying particular attention to children and young people, to those who are later in life and to those who are most vulnerable in our community.

^{The Kinship Project by LennonTaylor with local partners (MTU students pictured). Photo credit: Marilyn Lennon, 2022}

We will harness creativity to explore and advance the behaviours and attitudes, the actions and ideas that are a transformative response to our climate crisis. We will seek to encourage climate-neutral projects and to enable authentic, inventive solutions that will make a difference.

Q1: Can you apply if you are a community but have not yet identified who the creative personnel will be?

A1. Yes, as long as you clearly outline the process you will undertake to engage creative personnel. Please note that a creative practitioner cannot apply unless a community group is clearly identified and has provided a letter stating their support of the proposal and their interest in being involved.

Q2. Do the members of the applying community all have to live in the same area?

A2. No. Communities of interest are welcome to apply. For example, a group of people interested in a common topic or with a shared identity who live in different locations and who would like to work together on something creative are eligible to apply. However, communities of arts/creative practice are excluded if creative practice is the sole factor that unites them as a community.

Q3. Can communities of arts practice apply for the Creative Communities Grant Scheme?

A3. While we welcome applications from a diverse range of community groups, it's important to note that communities solely centered around arts practice are not eligible for the Creative Communities Grant Scheme. Such groups are directed to Cork City Council's arts funding schemes. 

Q3. Does the creative practitioner on the project have to be based in Cork City?

A3. The Lead Applicant for the funding must be based in Cork City Council's administrative area. If an artist/creative practitioner is submitting the application, they must live and work in Cork City. In all cases, the community involved in the project must be located within Cork City Council's administrative area.

Q4. How do I know if my community is within the Cork City boundary?

A4. If you are unsure of whether your area is within the city boundary, you can check at Maps of the New City - Cork City Council.

^{Cruinniú na nÓg 2025 launch in UCC. Photo by Clare Keogh}

Cruinniú na nÓg is a national day of free creativity for children and young people under 18. Cruinniú na nÓg is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme’s Creative Youth Plan to enable the creative potential of children and young people. In partnership with RTÉ and Local Authorities, the Creative Ireland Programme supports children and young people to get creative and showcase their creations all over Ireland.

 In Cork City, Cruinniú na nÓg is supported through partnership by arts organisations, cultural institutions and creative venues. 

Go to Cruinniú na nÓg Cork City

Keep up to date on all our activities via Facebook and Twitter @CorkCityArts and via Instagram @CruinniuNanOgCork

^{Gerry Murphy by the KinShip Noticeboard at Tramore Valley Park, Cork City. Photo by Lennon Taylor 2022}

The KinShip Project is led by artists LennonTaylor (Marilyn Lennon and Seán Taylor), in partnership with Cork City Council.

This project is supported by the inaugural Creative Climate Action award managed the Creative Ireland Programme in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communication. This award supports creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change and empowers citizens to make meaningful behavioural transformations. Local project partners include Cork Healthy Cities, Cork Nature Network, Cork UNESCO Learning Cities, Green Spaces for Health, MTU Clean Technology Centre and UCC Environmental Research Institute.

Go to The KinShip Project