News

Wild Words DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS workshop for Cruinniú na nÓg - Saturday 13th June

As part of a new project to bring together young people in Leitrim aged 14 to 17 that are interested in creative writing, storyteller and illustrator Wayne O Connor will be holding an online Dungeons and Dragons workshop for Cruinniú na nÓg where a team of brave Leitrim heroes shall join together in the world renowned storytelling game of adventure set in a fantasy world of monsters, magic and adventure. Guided by Wayne, the player’s decisions determine the direction of the story and its outcome. The game encourages communication, teamwork, problem solving and creative thinking. But all wrapped up in an exciting and fun workshop session. 

Participants must have good quality internet to conduct Skype Calls. All other materials are provided during the session. 

Participants will have the opportunity to continue the adventure in subsequent sessions using the story created on the day for Cruinniú na nÓg to further develop the characters and storyline, honing the script and developing their writing skills. Ultimately as part of a partnership project between the Wild Words Young Writers Festival and Leitrim County Council’s Arts and Library services with the support of the Arts Council, the intention is to develop a core group of young Leitrim writers aged 14 – 17 who will get to take part in fun and creative weekly creative writing workshops with a  group of like minded teenagers.

For further information and how to sign up for the Cruinniú na nÓg workshop on Saturday 13th June, go to www.wildwords.ie

Be Creative – Be Healthy – Be Connected

Call for Artists who want to work with communities on-line

In the context of our communities and citizens minimising physical engagement, Leitrim County Council is looking for artists that are interested in using on-line technology to provide opportunities for communities to engage with each other and enhance their creativity at this time.

While there is any amount of excellent national and international on-line resources available across the creative sector, some of which are outlined below, we are interested in developing be-spoke projects, programmes and activities that are directed to particular communities or cohorts in Leitrim that keep these communities connected. As such, as well as the artistic quality of the process, quality of engagement is key – engagement between the artist and the group and engagement between the group members themselves.

The group may be one which you already have a relationship with. It may be your own immediate community. It could be a youth group, parent and toddler group, mens shed, hens shed, fishing club, book club, housing estates residents group, a whole village, people who live on bogs or near a particular river - communities who up until recently physically engaged with each other on a near daily basis. While every community is currently feeling the impact of isolation, we particularly welcome projects that build on existing relationships with hard-to-reach communities and groups with additional needs.

Expressions of interest are being accepted from now up until Friday 10^th April. While the programme is designed for the current circumstances, some activities may extend beyond that point and may be maintained and continued thereafter.

For everyone at home with kids over the next few weeks, we’re gathering good ideas for links to fun and creative activities you can access on-line. Thanks to Avril Carr, Brid Finn and Suzanne Duffy for most of these suggestions – keep them coming and add them to the list…

		Dabbledoomusic.com is an on-line music education platform designed for teachers. It offers a free 6-week intro though so it's worth checking out.
		The amazing Thomas Johnson  from Ceol Connected will be live streaming some songs and stories to keep us all entertained. You can follow his facebook page here and his daily youtube Tradoodle is here
		There are great ideas from Tinkerlab here - from stop motion animation to easy science and craft projects.
		Branar Theatre Company - will post a link to one of their fab theatre shows each day. See here for more info
		Author Oliver Jeffers, will read one of his stories every week day at 6pm. See here for info
		Join Cavan's Craft Cabin on a Facebook Live at 12pm everyday for a craft challenge, prompt or activity for the kids to do while at home. They'll be mainly paper-based and use things that you probably have at home. Hopefully it'll help stem the boredom, entertain the kids and give parents some peace!
		Starting on Monday, for the next two weeks, Seomra Ranga will have a quiz for stay-at-home kids to complete. There will be a daily prize of a €20 Book Voucher to be won. It might pass half an hour for kids stuck at home during this time!
		The very kind people at Twinkl Resources are offering free access to parents/childminders for a month - covers all primary school subjects, resources for pre-school and lots if themed worksheets/activities.
		BrainPop - Expanding our learning tools, and helping kids create, construct, and collaborate as they explore their world. Brainpop have put on a free sign-up for schools that are closed – you can sign up as a parent or teacher
		Biodiversityinschools.com has loads of wonderful activities for kids to explore nature in their back gardens
		Sciencebob has loads of cool experiments for kids to play with.
		Scholastic has created a free learn-from-home site with 20+ days of learning and activities.
		These 12 famous museums will let you go on a virtual tour and travel the world
		Storyline online has loads of readings of children’s books
		Scribbles and Ink from PBS-kids has a nice drawing game, links to other activities, and you can sign up for daily activities
		Highlightskids has some nice things for younger kids
		Nationalgeographic for kids is always a hit
		coolmath4kids is a nice one for children making maths fun
		Turtlediary has a variety of online games, videos, experiments, puzzles and worksheets you can download for free. It’s like the schools never closed!
		Finally the vision of the non-profit e-learningforkids is to be the source for childhood learning on the internet available from anywhere for everyone and without charge

We'll keep the list updated so check back for new additions.

NEW

Individual Artist Bursary Programme 2020

New Closing Date - Friday 17th April, 2020

In light of ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, Leitrim County Council has brought forward the application window for applications under the Individual Artists Bursary programme from October to Friday 17th April, 2020. The programme is designed to support the development of Leitrim based professional artists working in any arts discipline through any means that will demonstratively contribute to an artist’s development.

Call for Culture Night Events

Leitrim County Council Arts Office welcomes applications from previous Culture Night venues and encourages new participants who might like to become involved for the first time. Culture Night is particularly suited to venues seeking to encourage new audiences and organisations such as choirs, theatre companies or book clubs who could host an evening of novel or exciting activities designed to engage new members. So if you are interested in organising or hosting a Culture Night event we would like to hear from you.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 1st June 2020.

Cruinniu na nOg - Call for Expressions of Interest

Celebrating creativity in young people - Saturday June 13th 2020

Do you have an idea for a creative event for children and young people that you would like to see happen? Cruinniú na nÓg 2020 - the national day of creativity for children and young people - will take place on Saturday 13th June this year. The model is similar to Culture Night except that events are held during the day, and focused on providing children and young people with opportunities to explore their creativity. This year we are asking collectives of any combination of children’s groups, youth organisations, arts centres, heritage, environmental or educational organizations etc. to submit an Expression of Interest to work together to allow for wider accessibility to Cruinniú na nÓg 2020. This could happen in number of ways; perhaps you could create a collaborative project together, or have a programme of different events in your area that take place in several venues. It does not mean that one organization must run all of the events, it’s about working and linking together to provide the best range of opportunities for young people of all ages in your community.

If you have an idea for a project or need assistance or further information please contact Alice Dixon, Creative Ireland Project Manager, on creativeleitrim@gmail.com or contact Leitrim County Council on 071 96 21694.

The closing date for Expressions of Interesy is Monday 1st April

2020 Arts Funding Programmes Launched.

Details, closing dates and application forms for the following funding schemes for activities in 2020 have now been published.

In addition to the ongoing schemes, a new funding programme to support artists wishing to perform or exihibit internationally has been developed with a closing date of 29th March 2020.