This week, schools across Ireland will take part in Creative Schools Week, an annual celebration of children’s creativity and imagination. Baboró is delighted to share highlights from three schools in the Creative Schools programme from County Galway who have been working closely with Baboró Creative Associate Jojo Hynes since 2020.
Belmont National School, Castlehackett National School, and Archbishop McHale College in Tuam will be celebrating this year's Creative Schools week from 9-13 May, along with the over 600 schools currently part of the Creative Schools initiative.This year’s theme is Creativity Lives Here!
Working with Jojo, a Tuam based artist, and their dedicated teacher creative coordinators, the three Galway schools are engaging with exciting and diverse projects highlighting the breadth and scope of young people’s creative potential.
Creative Schools Week Happenings in Co Galway
Belmont NS will celebrate their engagements with Galway County Music Generation and ATMOS Collective. For Creative Schools week they will have a workshop with Zane Kažotniece-Joyce called Wild about Music which focuses on music in nature. They will wrap up the week with a ‘creativity takeover day’ on Friday which will include the screening of their music video collaboration with ATMOS collective and the launch of the mural they created with artist Louise O’Boyle.
Castlehackett NS are working with Drumadore, a drumming school in Headford, to devise a performance video entitled “Waking the Fairies” for Cruinniú na nÓg, which takes place this year on 11 June. The students will also work with artist Kathy Ross for a costume session in preparation for their performance. In school they will share their project outcomes from Tech Steps and Toodlelou STEAM.
At Archbishop McHale College, the week’s festivities will feature a launch of their newly designed outdoor banner taking inspiration from workshops by artists Rachel Varden and Jennifer Cunningham. Other activities led by the Student and Teacher creative committee include a digital photography exhibition, printing workshop and a birthday party jam session for their new school piano. The College’s Transition Year classes also wrote, created and filmed two short films for the Dublin Smart Phone Film Festival. On Friday the ARC and Liberty students will celebrate and share their creative arts collaboration with Midie Corcoran.
What does it mean to be a Creative School?
In keeping with the theme Creativity Lives Here! Creative Schools week is a celebration of the fact that schools are truly creative places, filled with very creative people. The week is an opportunity to recognise and prioritise the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
If your school community would like to take part in the next round of Creative Schools, applications are now open. Full details on how to apply are here https://www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/schools-opportunities/. The closing date for applications is 17:30pm, 2nd June 2022.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Government’s Creative Ireland Programme, putting the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. The initiative is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
