Create awarded Creative Places tender by Arts Council

Create is proud to announce that we have been awarded the tender to manage the pilot programme of Creative Places Ireland, to take place in Tuam, Co Galway.

Creative Places Ireland is a three-year pilot programme, led by the Arts Council, for communities around the country that have not previously had opportunities to benefit from sustained public arts investment.

This pilot programme (2020–2022) with funding of €150,000 per annum, aims to build capacity locally for a sustainable grassroots approach to creativity and arts engagement. It will create new opportunities for local communities to collaborate on meaningful arts experiences, both during the three year programme and afterwards.

Create believes that by working together, artists and communities can purposefully explore how collaborative arts engage in distinct, relevant and powerful ways with the urgent social, cultural and political issues of our times. This programme will form a key part of Create’s thinking and work over the next three years, and we look forward to working with the people of Tuam to establish a durational, sustainable, community based arts practice in the town. We welcome Carolann Courtney to our team – Carolann will be based in Tuam, managing the programme with support from the rest of the Create team.

Tuam
Following extensive research, the town of Tuam was offered the pilot of this programme because it satisfied criteria indicating that it would enjoy social and economic benefits from sustained investment in the arts. Existing arts investment and infrastructure, social and economic factors, as well as the cultural diversity of place were examined during the research process and informed this decision.

The Arts Council envisages that Tuam will become an exemplar of the programme and that the pilot will help to shape the future development of the arts in other places throughout the country.