In 2023, Cork City Council launched a new, five-year, Culture and Creativity Strategy for Cork City supported by Creative Ireland. Cork City will build on the success of the previous five-year programme which saw €1.2 million invested in nearly 100 community-facing projects and events since 2018, including Ardú Street Art Initiative; One City One Book; Kinship Creative Climate Action, and the annual Cruinníu na nÓg.
Over the period 2023 – 2027, Cork City will focus on exploring and advancing five areas of strategic priority, confident of their enduring impact for the city and its communities. These are listed in the drop-down menus below. More details can be found in the strategy which is available to download here.
Culture and Creativity Strategy for Cork City_English Version
Cork Words by Cork City Library Service and featured writers. Image credit: Stuart Coughlan, 2023
We will encourage and enable communities and individuals to remember, celebrate and share their heritages, cultures, abilities and identity. We will find new and creative ways to understand and capture our past and to explore and respond to our present, reflecting the rich diversity of our expanded, evolving city and its people. By doing so, we will uncover the connections that bind us now and for the future as individuals and as communities.
ShandonUrban Orienteering Trail by Sheelagh Broderick with Abarta Heritage. Photo credit: Regina Walsh, 2021
Through close and creative engagement with our communities, we will re-imagine our city for those who live, work and visit here. We will illuminate new and familiar places and spaces across our city. We will inspire new understanding and deepen a sense of pride and of belonging. We will give visible expression to our communal values and to what makes us unique and compelling as a creative city. We will transform how people think of and engage with Cork City.
Young Print Collective supported by Cork Printmakers and Cork Migrant Centre. Photo credit: Clare Keogh, 2022
We will advance the culture, environment and conditions that will promote creative enterprise and innovation, and that will support our local creative industries. We will leverage existing strengths, support the development of new skills and capacities, as well as the creative clusters and partnerships that drive success. By doing so, we will amplify our profile as a creative city and enhance the potential of Cork City’s creative economy.
Rebel Streets with Cork Community Art Link and Cork Traveller Visibility Group. Photo credit: Framework Films, 2021
We will champion the role of culture and creativity in supporting the health, wellbeing and development of individuals and communities within the city. We will respond to the needs of people across all generations and abilities, paying particular attention to children and young people, to those who are later in life and to those who are most vulnerable in our community.
The Kinship Project by LennonTaylor with local partners (MTU students pictured). Photo credit: Marilyn Lennon, 2022
We will harness creativity to explore and advance the behaviours and attitudes, the actions and ideas that are a transformative response to our climate crisis. We will seek to encourage climate-neutral projects and to enable authentic, inventive solutions that will make a difference.
In Spring 2024 Cork City Council invited applications to the second year of a grant scheme for communities working with arts and creative practitioners to enable creativity in every community. The Creative Communities Grant Scheme aims to support ambitious and innovative projects which grow the capacity of individuals and communities and use creativity to create positive social and economic impacts. We are delighted to have awarded funding to 16 community projects across Cork City in 2024. Find out more about each project at the links below.
| Cork Mosque Tile Mosaic | Cork Islamic Cultural Centre Artist Amna Walayat |
| Look@Me 2024 | Strawberry Hill National School Cork International Film Festival |
| Tower Tales | Cloghroe National School, Tower Community Association Cork Community Media Hub |
| Narratives Unfolded: Older Adults Creative Response to Cork's Visual Arts | Cork Cultural Companions Muintir na Tíre |
| Imprint | Cork Migrant Centre Women's Coffee Morning Group Cork Printmakers |
| Voices from the Inside | The Education Unit in Cork Prison Actor/Writer/Director Ciaran Bermingham |
| Traveller Voices | St. Mary's on the Hill, Hollyhill Library Creative Tradition |
| Quilting the Rainbow: 40 Years of LGBTQI+ Activism in Cork | Cork's Gay Project Artist Billy Lingwood |
| Who We Are Now: Our Shared Story of Illness and Recovery through Weaving | Headway Ireland Artist Lucy Hyland |
| Behind the Curtain | Cork Penny Dinners High Hopes Drama Group Director Marian Wyatt |
| Mahon Community Art Project | Brothers of Charity CAP Mahon |
| Day of the Dead Festival | Mexican Community in Cork |
| Sweet Dreams: Lullabies Across the World | NASC, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre Artist Mary O'Mahony |
| Weaving Wellbeing through Creativity | Scoil Bernadette Artist Lynn Kirkham |
| Growing Art | Stephen Street Community Garden |
| Togher Boys School Culture Mural | Togher Boys National School Artist Kevin O'Brien |
All applications to the Creative Communities Grant Scheme must clearly identify at least two of the five priorities set out in the Culture and Creativity Strategy for Cork City.
For more information on the eligibility criteria for this scheme in 2024, view the Creative Communities Grant Scheme 2024 Guidance Notes.
The next round of Cork City Council's Creative Communities Grant Scheme - for projects taking place in 2025 - will be announced in late 2024. For more information contact louise_tangney@corkcity.ie.
Q1: Can you apply if you are a community but have not yet identified who the creative personnel will be?
A1. Yes, as long as you clearly outline the process you will undertake to engage creative personnel. Please note that a creative practitioner cannot apply unless a community group is clearly identified and has provided a letter stating their support of the proposal and their interest in being involved.
Q2. Do the members of the applying community all have to live in the same area?
A2. No. Communities of interest are welcome to apply. For example, a group of people interested in a common topic or with a shared identity who live in different locations and who would like to work together on something creative are eligible to apply. However, communities of arts/creative practice are excluded if creative practice is the sole factor that unites them as a community.
Q3. Can communities of arts practice apply for the Creative Communities Grant Scheme?
A3. While we welcome applications from a diverse range of community groups, it's important to note that communities solely centered around arts practice are not eligible for the Creative Communities Grant Scheme. Such groups are directed to Cork City Council's arts funding schemes.
Q3. Does the creative practitioner on the project have to be based in Cork City?
A3. The Lead Applicant for the funding must be based in Cork City Council's administrative area. If an artist/creative practitioner is submitting the application, they must live and work in Cork City. In all cases, the community involved in the project must be located within Cork City Council's administrative area.
Q4. How do I know if my community is within the Cork City boundary?
A4. If you are unsure of whether your area is within the city boundary, you can check at Maps of the New City - Cork City Council.
Under the Creative Ireland programme of Pillar 2 'Creative Communities', all local authorities are charged by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to set up culture teams made up of the cultural services in the Local Authority, and to devise a Culture and Creativity Strategy for the programme.
Cork City Council’s Creative Team is made up representatives from Archaeology, Architecture, Archives, Arts, Community, Conservation, City of Learning, Heritage & Biodiversity, Social Inclusion, Irish Language, Library Services, Cork Public Museum, Parks & Recreation, Tourism and Enterprise. The Creative Ireland Coordinator for Cork City is Michelle Carew, Cork City Arts Officer, who is supported in this role by Louise Tangney, Creative Communities Engagement Officer.
To find out more about Creative Ireland, follow this link.
Scroll down to learn more about Creative Ireland supported projects in Cork City.
Circus Factory Youth Members at Marina Park, Cork City. Photo by Darragh Kane 2022
Cruinniú na nÓg is a national day of free creativity for children and young people under 18. Cruinniú na nÓg is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme’s Creative Youth Plan to enable the creative potential of children and young people. In partnership with RTÉ and Local Authorities, the Creative Ireland Programme supports children and young people to get creative and showcase their creations all over Ireland.
In Cork City, Cruinniú na nÓg is supported through partnership by arts organisations, cultural institutions and creative venues.
Keep up to date on all our activities via Facebook and Twitter @CorkCityArts and via Instagram @CruinniuNanOgCork
Gerry Murphy by the KinShip Noticeboard at Tramore Valley Park, Cork City. Photo by Lennon Taylor 2022
The KinShip Project is led by artists LennonTaylor (Marilyn Lennon and Seán Taylor), in partnership with Cork City Council.
This project is supported by the inaugural Creative Climate Action award managed the Creative Ireland Programme in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communication. This award supports creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change and empowers citizens to make meaningful behavioural transformations. Local project partners include Cork Healthy Cities, Cork Nature Network, Cork UNESCO Learning Cities, Green Spaces for Health, MTU Clean Technology Centre and UCC Environmental Research Institute.
