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Arts and disability programme

We have won numerous awards for our Arts and Disability Programme which comprises of a number of elements.

Boga Boga

Boga Boga was an Integrated Dance project initiated by Clare Arts Office in partnership with the Brothers of Charity, Clare and Croí Glan Dance Company.

Boga Boga

The aim of this project was to create a new integrated dance community comprising of members of the public, members of the Brothers of Charity and local professional dancers and movement practitioners. Tara Brandel, renowned dancer and Director of Croí Glan led a series of integrated dance workshops from September to November 2019. In total seventy five members of the community participated.

The project also presented a series of intensive training workshops in Integrated Dance methods for local and national dancers, support workers and artists with a movement practise.

Embrace

In 2002 the Arts Office of Clare County Council introduced an Arts and Disability Programme as a pilot project countywide for all organisations working specifically with disabled people throughout the county. This project gave artists opportunities to work with members of the community they may not normally have access to. It also allowed participants to experience a variety of art forms over a specified period of time.

In 2004 the programme was significantly expanded following an independent evaluation. It was re-launched as Embrace – Arts and People with Disabilities Programme and has developed over the years with many new artists and organizations participating.

The Embrace Programme has a number of different elements. The main element is the programme awards which sees artists working in care settings with people with disabilities over a 25 hour period.The residency award sees one artist engage with a specific group for up to 50 hours to engage in more in-depth work and processes. 

Vision Symphony

In 2018 the Arts Office, received Arts Council ‘Invitation to Collaboration’ Research & Development funding to research and test the potential for supporting visually impaired musicians to learn orchestral material using multimedia platforms (audio and video files). The Arts Office partnered with Dave Flynn’s Irish Memory Orchestra and 3L in supporting seven musicians with various levels of visual impairments to participate in the research using the IMO’s memorisation techniques.

On foot of this research, we secured more funding from the Arts Council that enabled us to put the findings of the research of the IMO and 3L into practice. The Arts Office commissioned Dave Flynn to compose The Vision Symphony which was performed by the IMO, joined by visually impaired musicians and the Visionaries Choir, in glór, Ennis, in October 2019.

A short documentary on the project was created by film maker, Myles O’Reilly.

The project received local, national and international acclaim and won two awards at the 2020 All Ireland Community and Council Awards

  • Silver – Best Arts /Culture
  • Bronze – Best Disability Access / Inclusion Initiative

Page last reviewed: 21/10/21

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