Poetry Town awarded funding under Arts Council of Ireland’s Open Call initiative
Poetry Ireland is delighted to be one of four projects awarded funding under the Open Call initiative from the Arts Council of Ireland.
Poetry Town, which will be launched later this year, will commence with the appointment of 21 Poet Laureates, who will be commissioned to write a poem for their town, townspeople and the hinterlands. Individuals, groups and communities will be invited to celebrate poetry within their everyday lives and surroundings, creating communal experiences, celebrating the pride, value and importance of our heritage and the strength and diversity within rural areas today.
The creation of new poems honouring these towns and the people who live in them, as well as planned activities including workshops, audio-visual experiences, school competitions, physically active poetry exercises, and a flagship event, will ensure Poetry Town is a celebration of communities and artists who are making great art in and for their own localities.
The four large-scale, innovative arts projects for audiences in every part of Ireland are: Poetry Town (Poetry Ireland), WEFT (Dublin Fringe Festival), Eco Showboat (The School of Looking) and Swimming a Long Way Together (Vanessa Daws).
The Arts Council said the Open Call initiative means artists and arts organisations can shift their practice to make work on a national scale, creating high-profile art work central to people’s lives. Projects may be a discourse, provocation or response to place and identity as part of contemporary Ireland.
Stay tuned for more information about Poetry Town - we'll have plenty to share in the coming months.