Page 9 - Re-imagining our Region

We are a region of small-scale cultural organisations and micro creative businesses, re ecting distributed populations and people marrying quality of life with economic and creative sustainability. Our emergent digital sector is found across the region from town centres to rural villages and enhanced by creative interventions in public spaces. It is particularly visible in the cluster of micro creative enterprises in the Fumbally Exchange co-working space in Waterford and cra clusters in Kilkenny and Wexford. The students and faculty of our three major third-level colleges provide a diverse, engaged audience for arts practice through their curricula2.
Design and cra s are particularly strong across the Three Sisters notably in glass, jewellery and ceramics. Kilkenny is the national hub for craft and design, home to the Design & Cra s Council of Ireland and the National Cra Gallery. The city still enjoys the legacy of the 1960s Kilkenny Design Workshops and has built an international reputation for jewellery-making and ceramics form this international collaboration. Waterford’s
long association with glass dates back from 1783 through the Waterford Crystal brand to micro-enterprises in glass design and production in the city and county today. A national inter-agency approach to reposition the city as an International Centre for Glass Design and Making has already produced a framework model for development and which will be progressed as an element of our ECoC programme.
The region is also a pioneer for arts and health with
a track record of long-term partnership and programming in hospitals, care settings, community spaces and in the home, speci cally through the Waterford Healing Arts Trust and in arts and disability with the nationally acclaimed model Arts Ability in Wexford and K-Cat (Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent).
We are a region of festivals. Each city hosts at least one annual festival of international signi cance. The agship festi- vals in the region are Waterford Spraoi International Street Arts Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Kilken- nomics and the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival and our regional food festivals. By their nature festivals bring people together as engines for expression and connectivity. Inspired by the arts, food, rural life, cra , community, sport and culture and heritage, they are platforms for connecting people and ideas and create a destination focus for national and international visitors. These along with other festivals in the region have the creativity,
skills and organisational capacity to help develop and connect events, programming and resources on a regional scale.
The National Opera House is the major cultural draw in Wexford – a facility and organisation of genuine excellence. It is home to the annual and internationally renowned Wexford Festival Opera - Ireland’s leading opera event by a distance. The festival attracts international and domestic audiences annually to its presentation of lesser-known operatic repertoire. Theatre and performing arts – including real strengths in street arts – are a particular feature of the region’s culture, borne of commu- nities of practice, where amateur activities in rural and urban areas have generated international excellence.
Visual arts are well-represented with the Butler Gallery, Lismore Castle and VISUAL3 (in nearby Carlow) of particular international signi cance. A recent innovative cross-art form collaboration; ‘Song of the Sea’ features the Oscar-nominated Cartoon Saloon in partnership with the Butler Gallery. Wexford Arts Centre blends voluntary and professional activity and
strong international cultural partnerships and together with Blackstack Print Studio and ArtLinks (artists’ regional supports programme), embrace the region’s tradition of grassroots activi- ty and cooperation.
Our cultural heritage is the bedrock of our region,
from our sport, language, musical traditions, through to our landscape and built heritage. Sport is a particularly import-
ant element of this heritage. The Three Sisters is the cradle of hurling – Ireland’s oldest eld sport and together with Gaelic football is celebrated in every community. Both have a hugely passionate fan base and an unparalleled network of voluntary and community activity, which proves a major cultural asset for the Three Sisters.
Our language is part of our cultural heartbeat. ‘Gaeltacht na nDéise’ in Waterford is one of seven Irish-speaking areas
in Ireland where our native language is still spoken as a living, community language and where our linguistic heritage and its importance are proudly and passionately promoted. The cul- ture of language is celebrated publicly through festivals, events and activities with other Celtic minority language speakers in Wales and Scotland, in particular through exchanges, cultural visits and artistic collaborations and through programmes with recent migrant communities from across Europe.
Our language is also changing: the Three Sisters is
a microcosm of the process of cultural and demographic change across Europe. Waterford is designated as Place of Sanctuary~Waterford4. We, like other European regions, are experiencing quite profound social and cultural change as new arrivals, as they always have, are changing who we are and how we see ourselves. There is much to be done to improve our capacity for hospitality, to enhance intercultural dialogue, and to not only accommodate new arrivals but to embrace their potential as contributors to our cultural and economic life. As a region of smaller cities and rural areas, our role in engaging the full diversity of our communities and talent base could play a meaningful leadership role for regions like us across Europe.
3 VISUAL is a partner to the Three Sisters and is playing an active role in programme development and delivery.
4 City of Sanctuary began as a movement to build a culture of hospitality for people seek- ing sanctuary in the UK, and has spread now to Ireland. Waterford prefers to be known as Place of Sanctuary – Waterford. Its aim is to make Waterford become a place of welcome safety, security, and respect for all who visit and live in the county regardless of colour, race, religious, or social status.
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