This series of poems was created as part of The West’s Awake Community Weekend 2023.
It features poems from Emma O’Grady, Don Kerman, Kevin O’Dwyer, Brian Og McNamara, Marian Williams, Midie Corcoran, Padraig Stevens, Christy Corcoran, Sally McHugh and Seamus Ruttledge.
Jojo Hynes and Midie Corcoran, Tuam-based artists, were awarded a Creative Places Tuam Bursary in July 2020. The purpose of the bursary was to support and nurture socially engaged artists’ practice, specifically
aimed at artists with a track record of working collaboratively with communities of place or interest. Jojo and Midie have used the time afforded by the bursary to reflect on their experiences as collaborative artists, and to research inspiring collectives and explore best working practices within their community. They were guided in this work by mentor Kate O’Shea.
This issue of Create News features some of their observations and conclusions, in conversation with Kate O’Shea.
How do we tell you about all the cups of tea– our shorthand for meetings, planning, scheming, that kept Creative Places Tuam going when Covid 19 meant we had to change our plans?.
How do we tell you about the slowing of pace, holding of place, staying together even though we were in different counties (Dublin, Carlow, Cork and Galway) for months?
How do we talk about zoom, the emails, the phone calls, the hand-written letters, voice notes, WhatsApp messages…?
You will find here an infographic showing just some of the “vital statistics” of the past two years of work on Creative Places Tuam.
At the Create Networking Day (9th December 2020), close to two hundred delegates came together to collectively build a resource pack for the sector; talks, books, projects that have inspired, kept us going and which encourage our work as collaborative artists and cultural and/or community practitioners.
This resource, made up of everyone’s recommendations and co-produced by Create and Heart of Glass, is reflective of a sense of collective wisdom, provocation and support by our field of practice at this time.
Each resource can be accessed by clicking the heading for each item.