The initiative sought to incentivise experimentation across all arts disciplines, supporting artists to create public-facing, new work of impact, scale and ambition. The programme encouraged discourse, provocation and/or response on place and identity in contemporary Ireland.

Following a call for proposals, the awardees in this programme were:

From Out The Land – A Clonmel Kickham Barracks Story

From Out the Land was a multi-disciplinary, theatrical examination of the national story, told through the lens of the former Kickham Barracks in Clonmel. The production correlated key events from the Decade of Centenaries with historical and societal events over the course of the next hundred years. Our professional cast played a myriad of characters in an anthology series of events, knitted together with a musical chorus. Kickham Barracks itself was our narrator, brought to life by an ensemble of professional musicians and community performers who embodied an institution which looked over a town and a nation since its conception. This production questioned who we are based on what we did, and asked who we wish to become. 

 Clonmel Junction Arts Festival | From Out the Land

States of Independence

States of Independence celebrated the stories of ten change-makers from the Decade of Centenaries  linked to the stories of ten change-makers today working to make society a better place. The twenty stories gathered acted as inspiration for the creation of new artworks by ten artists, created for public display in eight sites – both ancient and modern – across Ireland and for display via creative billboards and online. The stories, artworks and performances were shared with public audiences to reflect on modern day revolutionary visions for the future inspired by the past and were launched as part of the annual Dublin International Arts and Human Rights festival. The team of ten artists were led by Mary Moynihan, an award-winning writer, poet, theatre and film-maker and Artistic Director, Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality, working with John Scott, Artistic Director and Choreographer, Irish Modern Dance Theatre.

Smashing Times | States of Independence

Someone decides, hawk or dove 

Someone decides, hawk or dove was a project that emerged from the 100 year anniversary of the institutionalisation of a border on the island of Ireland, the establishment of the separation between North and South. McCann’s practice speaks to the existence of this divide, situating works within the geographical and political landscape of this edge, to question and foreground its assumptions, context and meaning.

A central sculpture/structure, Turn Again, within Someone decides, hawk or dove was developed by the artist in collaboration with architect Peter Carroll. The sculpture takes its material and visual notes from two sources – a 19th century panopticon design and the lambeg drum. The piece has a covered central seated section that holds two people sharing the same seat, but facing opposite directions. McCann with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, proposed a composition exploring the sensibility of the traditional keening and battle song, of shared voices and tunes. The composition was performed as live event, but exists also as encountered voices and disseminated vinyl records.

Partners:

• Valerie Byrne, Director, National Sculpture Factory, Cork
• Dolores McGovern, Battle of Boyne Visitor Centre, Oldbridge, Meath, OPW
• Hugh Mulholland, Creative Director, Visual Arts ,The MAC, Belfast
• Miranda Driscoll, Solas Nua, Washington DC 
  
  

Solstice Arts Centre | someone decides, hawk or dove

NEST

Draíocht, Blanchardstown delivered NEST, a visionary, artistically ambitious project of scale that saw 24 stories inspired by Dublin 15’s children and young people, aged 20 months to 20 years, our youngest citizens, brought to life through collaboration with 24 leading multi-disciplinary artists - playwrights, theatre makers, spoken word artists, dance artists, and music artists - to produce 24 new contemporary works that map our present through the eyes of our children and young people. 
 
Led by Artistic Director, Veronica Coburn, NEST was about citizenship alongside the idea of home, both individual and collective, a single house, a familial place, a society. It marked the Decade of Centenaries by exploring the ideals of our origin state, liberty, equality and equity in a contemporary context. 
 
NEST's 24 new pieces of work were performed in homes and schools across Dublin 15, 3 times, on 1 March 2024. The project culminated in a bold festival of new and ambitious work for children and young people in March 2024 when all 24 works took over Draíocht’s building and were seen over one week.  

Draiocht | NEST

PALIMPSEST

PALIMPSEST layers artforms and histories in a large-scale live performance to trace and own the ghostly-edged histories our shadows leave behind. Richly theatrical, PALIMPSEST is an exhilarating, boundary busting kaleidoscope of dance, live music, and panoramic projection woven together into a visceral audience experience by David Bolger. It is inspired by key moments in Irish history as we come to the end of the Decade of Centenaries.

Presented in collaboration with St Patrick’s Festival and running from 13-23 March 2024.

PALIMPSEST | CoisCéim Dance Theatre