Workshops/Events/Performances

Project Partner:
Health Service Executive South

Access Programme
An access scheme whereby tickets were acquired to various European Capital of Culture events and made available free of charge to HSE clients.

Mike White Talks
Talks by Mike White, Director of Arts in Health at the Centre for Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine (CAHHM) at the University of Durham, and a trustee of the National Network for Arts in Health in the UK. The talks introduced the concept of art and health to staff of the Health Services Executive (HSE) through examples of such projects in health care settings.

Evening Echo Photographic Exhibition
Ten separate and unique exhibitions which rotated through day care and community centres in Cork city and county. The exhibitions included photographs and headlines in the areas of current affairs, the arts, sports and other significant events in Cork dating back to the 1920s, providing a stimulus for clients to reminisce. In 2006 the exhibition became the property of the HSE Southern Area.

Cork Singers Club
The Cork Singer’s Club visited a variety of healthcare settings in Cork to entertain the clients and encourage them to become actively involved in music and song.

It’s a Cultural Thing... or is it?
One of a series of events organised by the Traveller Visibility Group to celebrate the formal opening by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern of a new Traveller Resource Centre, in Cork. It’s a Cultural Thing... or is it? (A Traveller in Progress) by Michael Collins is the story of one community’s struggle and a re-emergence of a new Traveller identity in contemporary Ireland.

Northside Folklore Project
The Northside Folklore Project was a Cork Campus Radio project in the main programme of Cork 2005 which brought everyday life and experiences to the fore in its ‘Cultures of Cork’ radio project. This project enabled their subsequent broadcast on Cork University Hospital radio, bringing the project to patients and staff and other Hospital Radio listeners.

Cork International Choral Festival
During the Cork International Choral Festival, five choirs performed in five healthcare venues throughout Cork city.

Translation Series @ CUH
This particular project was an offshoot of the much larger Cork 2005 Translation project. Cork University Hospital Radio broadcast a series of programmes featuring poetry readings of three poets from Eastern Europe in the languages of origin as well as in English translation. Interviews with Guntars Godins of Latvia, Katarzyna Borun of Poland and Andres Ehin of Estonia and their Irish counterpart poets, Eugene O’Connell, Gerry Murphy and Patrick Cotter and music selections also featured.

Cónal Creedon Readings
Cork novelist and playwright, Cónal Creedon, one of Ireland’s exciting new writers. In late December 2005 and early January, Cónal gave readings of his own work settings in Cork, including Cork Prison, Mayfield Day Care Centre and the Ambassador Hotel in Cork.

Tea Dance
Entertainment at the Cork 2005 /HSE Tea Dance was provided by the Cork Pops Orchestra, Ireland’s only Community Orchestra, conducted by Evelyn Grant, a lecturer at the Cork School of Music and presenter on RTÉ Lyric FM. The orchestra was joined by Carl Corcoran (RTÉ Lyric FM Breakfast Show) who sang a selection of numbers with the orchestra. HSE clients enjoyed a range of music from Johann Strauss to Abba and demonstrated their dancing skills in waltzes, tangos, two-steps and a bit of rock ‘n’ roll. There was a capacity attendance of 800 HSE clients from Cork city and county.

Dance Connect
Dance Connect was a dance movement class designed for children with autism and their parents. For children the workshops provided the opportunity for involvement in a social setting that offered scope for leisure activity; promoted personal development and relieved tension and energy in a fun and positive way. For the parents the classes offered a time and place to focus on positive aspects of their child’s abilities and to benefit from physical activity leading to stress relief, fun and positive parent/child bonding.

Bisakha Sarker & Company: Dance Residency
Chaturangan, Bisakha Sarker and Company performed ‘Sacred Move’ at Firkin Crane and worked with the Institute of Choregraphy and Dance (icd) on workshops with five community-based groups in Cork. The aims were to locate dance in community contexts to increase access and participation; to offer a multi-cultural experience through dance (and allied art forms); to enhance the OPID (Older People in Dance) network with a focus on East Cork; and to create a link ‘Across the Sea’ between European Capitals of Culture: Cork 2005 and Liverpool 2008. Bisakha’s work was extremely well received in the various contexts she visited and all objectives were realised during her time in Cork. The visit was also highly successful in deepening the connection between icd and this extraordinary artist.

Cork International Folk Dance Festival
European dances participating in the Cork International Folk Dance Festival performed in four different centres in Cork: the Share Day Care Centre on Sheare Street; The Westgate Foundation, Ballincollig; Carraig Mór Centre, Shanakiel; and Cork University Hospital. The performances involved folk dance, music and song performances by groups representing four different nations: Holland, Poland, Sardinia and Brittany.

King Lear and the Three R’s
This project stemmed from the Cork Opera House/Janus Theatre Company production of ‘King Lear’. Focusing on the central themes of the Shakespearean script, the project honoured the life experiences of the elderly by enlisting a group of 15 older people from the Bishopstown Senior Social Centre as consultants to the production. During two interactive workshops actors performed selected scenes, discussed the rehearsal process and challenges that they faced in developing their characters. The older people gave them an insight into their experience and offered advice on voice and movement. The older people then attended the opening night performance of King Lear in the Half Moon Theatre in Cork Opera House. The collaboration with the actors enabled the group to not only actively participate in the production process but provided access to a live performance.

Oliver! – Actors’ Visit
Actors from the Cork Opera House production of Oliver! visited members of Westgate Foundation in Ballincollig. The actors, Rebecca Smith and Luke Hayden, well-known for their long-time roles in the popular Irish television soap ‘Fair City’, were welcomed by the group of excited fans in the day care centre, well. They arrived in costume and full make-up from their respective roles as Nancy and Bill Sykes and circulated among the members, chatting and shaking hands and posing for photographs. The visit was one of the highlights of the many worthy activities that take place in Westgate Foundation.

At Play with Puppets
‘At Play With Puppets’ introduced 13 non-national children and parents from Nigeria, Ghana, and Albania who were based at Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre, an asylum seeker centre, to several Cork cultural and recreation institutions in March 2005. The families traveled by coach to Cork Opera House where they enjoyed a performance of the Lambert Puppet Theatre’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’. They were then brought to the playground at Fitzgerald Park for a picnic, followed by a puppet-making workshop with Dowtcha Puppets at Cork City Museum where the children made simple puppets of newspaper, masking tape, sticks, yarn and fabric, followed by a visit to the ‘Magic of Masks and Puppets’ exhibition in the Museum.

Guinness Jazz Festival
During their participation in the Guinness Jazz Festival the 10th Avenue Jazz Band performed in the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre, an asylum seeker centre, giving asylum seekers there the opportunity to experience one of the world-class acts performing in the famous Cork Festival, a performance they otherwise could not have enjoyed.

Trinidad & Tobago Steel Band
The Trinidad & Tobago Regimental Steel Orchestra performed in various workshops, including a concert at St Luke’s Hall which was crowded with schoolchildren and adults. During their visit to Cork the Orchestra also performed for staff and clients of the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, on Cork’s main street, Patrick Street, in Mahon Point Shopping Mall and University College Cork. Clients in the healthcare settings and other audience members also enjoyed access to this musical tradition which they otherwise would not have had.

Best of Irish Tour
In addition to the commencement of Music Network’s Music in Healthcare/Mental Health Settings project in St. Stephen’s Hospital, Glanmire and Carrigmore Centre, Shanakiel, Music Network arranged a concert by three well-known traditional Irish musicians who were, at the time, engaged on a Music Network Best of Irish concert tour of Ireland. The concerts kick-started the series of participative Music in Healthcare workshops in the two centres and the high quality live music event was enjoyed by the patients and staff.

Image Reference:
Culture & Health – Trinidad & Tobago Steel Band. Credit: Ger McCarthy
Culture & Health – Echo Exhibition. Credit: Ger McCarthy