Age and Opportunity, Bealtaine Festival 2015

The Bealtaine Festival is a nationwide celebration of ‘creativity as we age’ organised by Age and Opportunity Ireland. One of the festival’s themes for 2015 is reflecting upon our relationship to landscape.

As part of this celebration, St. John of God North East Services in Drumcar, County Louth staged a May procession of song, art, poetry and movement, within a forest filled with wildflowers.

Seasonal celebrations at St. Jon of God North East Services are now regularly held as a collaboration between staff members involved in art therapy, spiritual care, art, music, and activation programmes. Each celebration incorporates folklore traditions, ritual, music, artworks, and environmental installations.

A series of creative movement workshops are exploring touch as a stimulus for dance for adults living with physical disability and limited mobility. Improvisation through finger and hand contact examines relationships with carers through non-verbal communication.

Gestures unfold into a series of evocative explorations of space, time and inter-subjectivity.

This project is supported by Saint John of God North East Services, County Louth

Artist books displaying the discoveries of walking expeditions through floral gardens is the feature of a project for adults with special needs. Botanical drawing, in this instance, captures not the actual representation of a plant’s features, but rather how the viewer moves and responds to the plant itself. Walking and artistic gestures are combined, and movement accompanies observation and depiction. The goal of the project is to document botanical experiences that are full of colour, texture, and a feeling of abundance.

This project is supported by Saint John of God North East Services, County Louth

Groundswell coordinated an arts and health celebration for Spring 2015 entitled A Feast of Words: Arts and Well Being. The celebration was an inaugural event launching an arts and health partnership composed of the following participants: The Arts Office of County Louth (Create Louth), Creative Spark, An Táin Arts Centre, The Dundalk Youth Centre, and Louth County Council Library Service.

Feast of Words Events

International Women’s Day Book Displays at Dundalk, Drogheda and Ardee Libraries

Remote: A Play about Protest, Power and Protecting Yourself, M.A.D. Youth Theatre, An Táin Arts Centre

Pulp and Print Exhibition of Handmade Paper Banners with Screen Printing at Creative Spark

Performance Art for the Dundalk Youth Centre’s Open House and St. Patrick’s Day

Writing History, A Workshop for Adults with author Nicola Pierce, Drogheda Library

A Life: A Play about Connections Between the Past and the Present, Dolmen Theatre Group, An Táin Arts Centre

Writing History, A Workshop for Adults with author Nicola Pierce, Dundalk Library

The aim of the Louth arts and health alliance of cultural programmes is to promote community based access to arts interventions that examine and enhance human experience. Of particular interest is the delivery of arts and health services that reflect the integrity of locality as a cultural orientation. Interaction, expression, and achievement are proposed outcomes of an arts and health agenda within this community context.

This project was supported by Create Louth, The Arts Service of Louth County Council

Saint John of God North East Services in Drumcar, County Louth supported an art therapy residency featuring sculptural forms and movement studies, as a therapeutic practice for adults receiving disability services. The manipulation of materials resulted in three dimensional constructions that also explored collaborations between service users and their carers. These ‘duets’ were enacted within movement sessions aimed at unfolding new physical possibilities. Art and movement studies apply art therapy to interrogations of space, and examine how physical contact can create extensions into new dimensions of experience.

Groundswell has worked in collaboration with Louth County Council Environment Section, Louth Tidy Towns Together and Blackrock Tidy Towns Together on two biodiversity projects which have received national recognition.

1. Pride of Place Awards in Association with Cooperation Ireland (2014)

An all-island competition that acknowledges the work of communities.

Eco Tribes, Eco Initiative Category, Runner Up

2. Local Authority Community and Council Awards (LAMA) 2014

Awards acknowledge County Council collaboration with community projects that enhance localities.

Blackrock Playground Park, Best Public Park

Visual Journals: Mixed Media Artist Books was the title of a month long course at Ardee Library combining journalling and creative writing. A visual journal combines words, photos, images and memorabilia. It is composed from a variety of materials, creating a series of reflective and personal compositions of ideas, experiences and daily activities. The course included outdoor printmaking, photography, environmental art, visual poetry, collage making, drawing and excursions to explore natural and architectural surroundings.

This project was supported by the Louth County Council Library Service