Assisting entrepreneurs, encouraging cultural integration in schools, and creating beautiful tapestries, Creative Spark is involved in a number of projects centered around the development of the community. Covid-19 has impacted the progression of many of these projects, particularly our transnational projects. Following the ease in travel restrictions and the vaccination rollout across the world. Creative Spark were delighted to host its partners from the Culture United project just in time for Culture Night 2021!

It was great to see our European partners from the Culture United project again! This week we’ve decided to take a look at all the projects that we are involved in as well as the partners and participants we hope to see again soon!

Culture United

Culture United is a collective of organisations across the world taking part in cultural events and heritage festivals. Creative Spark is proud to be one of the organisations who share the ambition to inspire and educate children on how their cultural heritage is important and to help them feel a part of it.

‘’Culture United utilizes cultural events and heritage festivals as a driver to embed multidisciplinary ways of teaching in primary schools.
The context behind our project initiative is to appeal to the interests and natural enthusiasm of children and to use this effectively in an interactive and engaging way to learn and be inspired.’’

 As part of Creative Spark’s initiative to encourage heritage and culture around Dundalk we helped in the organisation of the ever-popular SEEK Festival, with our latest artists Smug and Tellas arriving this month to add to our wonderful mural collection!

As some of you may remember, our Print Studio coordinator Grainne was cycling around Dundalk on her printing bike giving people of all ages, the opportunity to print their own tote bag! As part of the aim for cultural integration into primary education, Grainne will be heading to a gaelscoil in the future to deliver a variety of cultural programmes by means of poetry, dance and art. These cultural programmes will revolve around the themes presented in the murals as part of the SEEK Festival.

For more information on the Culture United programme, and to see what our partners have been getting up to click here 

INVOLVE

INVOLVE is the most recent European project that we have gotten involved in! the aim of the INVOLVE project is to strengthen the visual literacy of entrepreneurs. In the present day, we are surrounded by visually oriented business environment, with social media platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok, as well as traditional sources of marketing such as billboard advertisements. The team at INVOLVE plan to research a variety of delivery methods in order to come up with a best practice across Europe, which will be then delivered to encourage educators to incorporate visual literacy training into their teachings.

For more information on the INVOLVE project, its partners, and to see what we have gotten up to so far, click here

Community Tapestry Project

This project started way back in 2018! While Covid-19 impacted the rollout of the project, the Community Tapestry Project was developed with the local community to create a unique and permeant artefact for Dundalk and County Louth.

Back in November 2018, an open call was issued inviting the local community to come together and to share their favourite story about where they live – their street, their town, their county – to help us capture stories of particular relevance to County Louth and the people who live here. 

At these story collecting sessions, we engaged story facilitator, Ali Warner, and illustrator. Geraldine Martin, to record and capture the key themes and topics. These were then translated into a large-scale image to be embroidered onto a panel of Irish linen as a collaborative endeavour.  

Workshops were then held to teach the Bayeux stitches needed to create this embroidered wall hanging tapestry. The project was assisted and supervised by textile artist Una Curley. The finished piece now hangs up in our main building in Muirhevnamor!

SEEK Urban Arts Festival Dundalk

Undoubtedly, one of the most successful events in Dundalk is the SEEK Urban Arts Festival! The SEEK Festival is centred on promoting contemporary urban art in Dundalk, Ireland. By commissioning established and emerging artists locally, nationally and internationally, we aim to promote the town culturally and artistically, repositioning the area as a vibrant hub for creativity. The SEEK Urban Arts Festival is incorporated in a variety of our other projects.

For more information on the SEEK Festival and the participating artists, click here 

Art as Exchange

AAEX (Art as Exchange) is an open, all-inclusive group of visual artists, facilitated and supported by Creative Spark in Dundalk, coming together for the sake of making public art that is accessible, experiential, participative and/or free. In return, participating artists and their practice will grow and develop through a mutually respectful and fair exchange of information, ideas and knowledge. It will inspire artists by providing a space to experiment, learn new skills and make art. As many of the artists are based in rural areas, the lighthearted meet-ups will provide a social outlet, knowledge of our work and greater sense of belonging to a larger community of artists. Active engagement in the development of art initiatives and events in the region.

Most recently, AAEX held a variety of workshops in St. Helenas Park in conjunction with Culture Night 2021. For more information on AAEX and to get involved, click here