The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, today announced funding of €6.6 million for the 2022 Creative Ireland Programme Creative Communities initiative. This partnership between the departments and all 31 local authorities is being enabled through the Creative Ireland Programme. It will offer thousands of opportunities across Ireland for people of all ages to engage with creative projects in their local area.
In 2021 this enabled local authorities to deliver nearly 1,500 community-led creative projects. This funding has proved to be an important flexible resource that has enabled local authorities to sustain and develop vibrant creative communities.
This funding includes planning for an enhanced Cruinniú na nÓg – Ireland’s national day celebrating young people’s creativity in June 2022. There will be projects around Creativity in Older Age with opportunities for older people to participate in creative activities. Finally, Creative Climate Action projects in partnership with Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications will use the talents of artists and the wider creative industries to connect people with profound changes happening in our environment, society and economy arising from climate change.
The ambition of the Creative Ireland Programme is to mainstream creativity in the life of the nation. Participation in cultural and creative activity promotes individual, community and national wellbeing.
Creative Communities is a collaboration, between central and local government, between culture and industry, between artists, policy makers and communities.
Since the programme was launched in 2017, there has been an investment of €21 million from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in Creative Ireland initiatives undertaken by local authorities.