Uillinn Connect Programme

While we were closed our Public Engagement Team got innovative using various ways to remain connected with our community and reach new audiences, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

Uillinn Connect was our new programme responding to our current global situation. The programme sought to find new ways to connect artworks, artists and the public. We focused on our regular programme and also created new ones that reached out everyone keeping safe at home.
We began each week with a new post from our guest blogger Stella Gilfert every Monday, see our Blog here. Stella Gilfert studied Fine Art at the Braunschweig University of Art, Germany and completed a master's degree in art education. Stella has engaged in diverse types of educational programmes including contributing to the educational work at the Museum Wolfenbüttel where she will start a traineeship in museum work following completion of her role as Public Engagement Placement at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre in May 2020. 

Uillinn Connect - Daily Art Activity
Posted daily on our Facebook event, follow this link
An online connecting activity for primary school-age children and their parents, every morning at 11am from Monday to Friday with Public Engagement Assistant Kate McElroy and intern Stella Gilfert (now interning remotely from Germany).
Taking inspiration from our primary schools exhibition Connecting, Gabhann Dunne's exhibition Committed to Falling and William Bock's exhibition Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks, we shared a daily art activity for families to create at home.
'We don't stop playing because we grow old,
We grow old because we stop playing'
George Bernard Shaw
Use the hastag: #UillinnConnect on social media or email photographs of your work to info@westcorkartscentre.com so we can connect the work together! Shared on social media and archived on our web here.

Uillinn Connect
Play on words, Play onwards
Wednesday Art Club artists devised a wonderful way to keep the programme running with a postal project designed with each child in mind. Artists Pól Ó Colmáin and Marie Cullen prepared a special envelope for each child containing a unique poem written for the child by the artists; a selection of art materials; and a letter from Pól and Marie inviting the children to make a visual response to the poem.
The children were asked to return their artwork in the stamped, addressed envelope provided to Pól and Maire, who then compiled a limited edition book with a copy for each child.
Here's the first verse of one of the poems to give you a flavour:
The Little Earwig
There was a little earwig, I think his name was Liam,
 but it didn't really matter, 'cos he'd answer just the same.
He lived in the back garden shed in a cosy little house,
a ball of leaves and twigs that he shared with a wood louse.
He loved to go spelunking in each tunnel, cave and hole,
exploring every hollow stem when he was on patrol.
And then, he'd head back homewards and, as cosy as you please,
he'd tell of his adventures and his discoveries.
 

And We'll All Fly Together
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre's Curiosity project connecting pre-school children with the residents and staff of West Cork Community Hospitals during COVID-19. Sarah Ruttle along with Uillinn's Programme Manager: Education and Community and Arts for Heath Coordinator Justine Foster, devised a project to connect children with the community hospitals. See here for more information on this project. 

Uillinn Connect - Weekly Art Activity for Adults
Posted each Saturday at 12 noon on Facebook, follow this link.
An online connecting activity for adults, every Saturday at 12 noon with Public Engagement Assistant Kate McElroy. Taking inspiration from Gabhann Dunne's exhibition Committed to Falling and William Bock's exhibition Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks, we shared a weekly art activity for adults to create at home.
Shared on social media and archived on our web here.

Uillinn Connect - Behind the scenes
We worked to virtually bring together our Rusty Frog Youth Theatre for weekly sessions online with organisational and facilitator supports coming from YTI which have mobilised a zoom network of facilitators nationwide. Rusty Frog Youth Theatre connected for the first time on 31 March using Zoom. They continue to meet weekly for fun activities.

Alan Foley Academy of Dance - Our 100 Young Dancers took turns to daily post their stretches and dance practice from their homes. AFAD Facebook Group for students and their parents for regular updates and lots of online resources. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176409209054747/

We are connected with our Arts for an Active Mind participants by telephone and the facilitator Paul Cialis is designing a postcard project to send to each other beginning 30 March 2020. Arts for an Active Mind are now connected using WhatsApp for their at home and in the garden project. Discussions are happening and the connection is daily. 

We have three Arts for Health programmes that aim to maintain our connection with participants, staff and artists at Castletownbere, Dunmanway, Skibbereen and Schull Community Hospitals. Check out the Arts for Health, West Cork website https://artsforhealthwestcork.com/artistic-events-and-news/ for updates.  

Uillinn Connect - Arts for Health Podcasts Released
Made last year and not yet released! It seemed a good time when we might have time while we stay at home. We invited you to join us in a cup of tea and a listen of our three part podcast series showing inside the Arts for Health programme.
Each episode tackles an issue relating to our arts and health work and features the key players who make up the programme.  Portraying the complexity and the value of culture and the arts in healthcare, the series shares the challenges and successes of innovation and creativity in a hospital setting from the different perspectives of those involved.
Presenter, Liz Clark leads the conversations adding her unique perspective as a musician and artist working on the programme, kicking off the series asking artists What is it like to be an artist working in healthcare? A new episode was released each week at 1:30pm on Wednesdays. Go to Arts for Health Podcast. Join us on twitter @artsforhealthw1 #artsforhealthpodcast Credits: Produced by Michael Holly, Graphic Design by Ana Maria Surdu, Presented by Liz Clark and music by Darragh Kearns Hayes, Justin Grounds, Maire Laure Haas and Fiona Kelleher. With special thanks to all the residents, participants, managers and healthcare staff. Supported by Cork Education and Training Board and the Arts for Health Partnership. Find the podcasts here
 

Uillinn Connect - Exhibitions
Online videos and daily posts on aspects of Gabhann Dunne's exhibition Committed to Falling and William Bock's exhibition Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks including online streaming of elements of the Land Talks programme.

• Online screening of Pine Square by Michael Holly and Lauren Guillery took place on Thursday 12 March, the film was made available for viewing for 24 hours. 
• Live streaming of a talk by Peter Tadd - A Conversation with Nature, live streamed on Saturday 21 March from the gallery on the Land Talks Facebook page.
• Online presentation by Artist in Residence, Pascal Ungerer of Marginal Spaces, pre-recorded and uploaded to Facebook event and YouTube at 1.30 pm on Tuesday 31 March
• Uriel Orlow - Online Film Screening followed by Q&A via ZOOM, Thursday 2 April at 7.00 pm. See Facebook event for further details.
• Saturday 4 April. An online multicultural lunch. We will be gathering for a virtual lunch and conversation on the Zoom platform with guests Vukašin Nedeljković, Zoë O Reilly, William Bock and individuals from Clonakilty Lodge Direct Provision, participants of Bock's Land Walks Project. The conversation will be recorded on Zoom and broadcast on Land Talks Facebook and shared on Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre Facebook, later on Saturday.

Uillinn Connect - Film

• All of our video content is uploaded to our YouTube channel which you can find here: YouTube
• Screen and Chats happened each Thursday evening at 5 pm, with video links posted to individual events on our Facebook page and live chats on our twitter accounts - Uillinn and Arts for Health, West Cork
• First Screen and Chat - Online Launch of The Sea on Thursday 9 April

Cruinniú na nÓg at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre
Cruinniú na nÓg 2020 is a collaboration between the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Creative Ireland Programme, local authorities and RTÉ, and is part of the Government’s #InThisTogether campaign which is supporting everyone to stay connected, stay active and look after our physical and mental wellbeing. In light of the public health restrictions currently in force, the Creative Ireland Programme and its partners have developed a number of creative, cultural and engaging “calls to action” which children, young people – indeed entire families – can create in their own homes and gardens on Saturday 13 June. https://cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie/

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre has been working on several different projects with children and young people for Cruinniú na nÓg, you can find out more here.