The Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. Colm Kelleher is encouraging families to visit the city’s galleries, museums and attractions, which have been given a playful makeover this summer. And those that dress up in their favourite costume this weekend could be in with a chance of winning the ultimate play day out in Cork City for 2 children and 2 adults, with entry to 4 attractions of their choice on the trail, a mini tea party with hot chocolate and pastries for the children and coffee for the parents at St Peters Cork, and a €50 Vibes and Scribes voucher.
The Playful Culture Trail features 30 fun and playful places where kids can explore the city’s culture, heritage and green spaces through play. For a full list of participating attractions see purecork.ie/playtrail.
Commenting, the Lord Mayor said, “The Playful Culture Trail is a fantastic initiative, which Cork City Council is proud to be a key sponsor of. Our museums, galleries and attractions have come together to make their spaces more playful to encourage more children and families to visit. The idea is to make kids VIPs so they get excited about culture and our city’s heritage from an early age, which is wonderful. Culture helps to develop thinking skills, build self-esteem, and improves resilience as well as broadening horizons and encouraging curiosity. I’m really looking forward to exploring more of it with my own children”.
When children go to the city’s cultural attractions, they’re given a fabulous tote bag with unique activity sheets at each location, crayons, a bookmark and pure cork pen and are sent off on all sorts of challenges from investigation work, to sketching superheroes, crosswords, word hunts, scavenger hunts, and colouring! The pack also contains a colourful and child friendly map which highlights 30 child friendly places to explore the city’s culture, heritage, and green spaces through play.
And one of the biggest hits of the trail is searching for Bláithín the Irish lizard, the trail mascot who is playing hide and seek at lots of venues!
This project is part of an overall mission to make Cork a playful, child friendly, active city and was developed in collaboration with all of the participating museums, galleries and attractions in Cork, in partnership with Playful Paradigm, Cork City Council, Cork Local Sports Partnership, Pure Cork, and Bus Eireann.