Brought together by the fear that time was running out for them on their south-western peninsula, a  group of artists, community members and development organisations came together in Uíbh Ráthach in the spring of 2021 to apply to the Arts Council for Cumas Ceantar/Creative Places Research and Development funding (R+D).  

The working group responsible for developing the original application were making a case for a new and experimental intervention in this rural area.  The frightening rates of depopulation, an ageing demographic, the withdrawal of public and social services and all of the associated social and cultural consequences were draining the quality of life for the majority of the remaining population who live here year around.² The working group members  shared a baseline understanding of the potential of art to operate as a catalyst in generating small, incremental moments of social change, and this was their motivation to persevere. 

Cumas Ceantar/Creative Places Research and Development (R+D)
Creative Places is a relatively recent initiative of the Irish Arts Council, with the first pilot programme being rolled out in Tuam, County Galway in 2020. The main strand of this programme offers an opportunity for places and communities to receive a sustained  investment in the local and community based arts, over a three-year period. This is an intervention which is rooted in socially engaged arts practice and community development principles. The second strand of this investment programme, the Creative Places R+D award is designed to fund a period of research during which a researcher will spend a period of time working in an area prior to making a follow-up application for full Creative Places status under the Arts Council funding programme. The maximum award under the R+D fund is valued at €30,000 used to fund research fees and costs associated with the consultation phase 

The R+D award was awarded to the  Uíbh Ráthach working group in 2021.  This funding enabled the community to employ an arts-based researcher over a period of eighteen months. The R+D period was about having and taking the time to undertake a slow, incremental programme of work.³

The Creative Places researcher worked in and with local communities and individuals, using primarily arts-based participatory action research methods. Participants, engaged in a series of tailored arts and cultural activities, were simultaneously invited to critique the experience itself, and also to question and interpret the ideological predispositions which may have surfaced during the work. Identifying and framing some of the ideological foundations of this particular place, and of the communities who continue to live here, came to constitute a key component of the research approach. Insights and learning from the research period helped shape the application for the next stage of the Creative Places programme. The programme of work which was proposed in this application had evolved in a way which ensured that it was relevant to the particular cultural conditions and development context  of the Uíbh Ráthach Gaeltacht and its hinterland. The formal proposal was presented to the Arts Council in March 2023.  

Cumas Ceantar/Creative Places Uíbh Ráthach
The award of full Creative Places status was granted later that year and the programme proper began in January 2024. This was received as an enormous vote of confidence in the capacity of the people of the Uíbh Ráthach Gaeltacht to be radical and resourceful in facing the challenges of an uncertain future.  The funding constituted a state investment of €335,000 over three years in this historically neglected part of Ireland and was to be delivered according to the principles underlying social engagement through arts-based interventions.

As this paper is being written at the end of year one, it offers a useful vantage point to consider the work that has taken place to date.

Time was the treasured ally during the R+D period, but now it begins to exert pressure, the awareness of the three-year timeframe adding urgency and pace. Each step taken is designed in the context of impact and lasting legacy. Having excavated and exposed some of the cultural breaches during the R+D period, the forward planning and implementation can now be agile and focused. The strategic objectives for year one are concentrated primarily on two areas: The Artists and the Agencies. 

Community Map building Tochail arts research residency.
Photo: Michael Hermann. 

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The Artists
For this work to have lasting impact in any area, it is necessary to have a (small) battalion of artists and organisers who understand and value the principles of socially engaged art, who are excited by the potential application of these strategies in their own practice, and who are interested in participating actively in the civic life of their community. The R+D research had identified a persistent sense of isolation and disconnect amongst the small cohort of professional artists who live in Uíbh Ráthach, with little feeling of community spirit or shared endeavour evident or expressed amongst this group. Many were creating work for the tourist craft market, or teaching part-time, and saw little opportunity for  growing their careers further in this area. There was some familiarity with the theory of socially engaged arts practice, but little opportunity to explore fully until now. 

Year one was focused on offering a wide range of interventions which were directed towards building relationships, skills and solidarity amongst this group of creatives. The offer involved a broad suite of upskilling opportunities – workshops in socially engaged strategies, professional mentoring, peer-to-peer events, critical friend support, residency opportunities, networking events, social events, accessible and targeted seed funding rounds to design and develop small-scale socially engaged projects, information sharing, support with funding applications, professional engagements, amongst other opportunities or interventions. 

 At the beginning of 2024 many of the artists who participated were meeting each other for the first time. At  the end of the year, many more artists have now been identified, new skills and connections have been forged, and a new group have come together to  discuss the advantages of forming an artists’ collective. In another area on the peninsula the potential of a new co-operative print studio is being examined.  

Facilitated community discussion TOCHAIL arts research residency.
Photo: Michael Hermann. 

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The arrival of Cumas Ceantar/ Creative Places has changed our little world in Caherdaniel/ Castlecove. It has brought a  revival to our Arts community and opened it to the wider community, encouraging our Artists to share and impart their knowledge and to come out of the shadows and shine …. The feeling of connectiveness and talent is heartfelt and can only grow and grow, reigniting a fire and bringing strength and connection to our sometimes very isolated community. Niamh O Shea. Caherdaniel.

On talking with fellow artists and performers, the feeling of what (Cumas Ceantar/Creative Places UR) has given to the local area is one of respect for practising artists and their artform. The funding allows the artist to
move an idea from that of practical planning into the budding phase and provides much needed financial support during this process. When you provide water and nourishment to barren ground, it is amazing what might bloom! Peter Mullarkey. Archivist/Musician.

REIC @ Aon Scéal Festival 2024.
Photo: Edel O Braonáin. 

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Throughout the year, Uíbh Ráthach artists have been working with a range of community groups, including children, teenagers, members of the Men’s Shed, Irish language groups, older people, farmers, set dancers, Ukrainian groups.  They have also worked on several inclusive community-wide festivals and projects. 

Banba Cur le Chéile Festival.
Photo: Jacqueline O Driscol. 

Culture Night 2024.
Photo: Edel O Braonáin. 

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As an instance of the way in which tiny moments of creativity can quickly dynamise a rural area, the modest mask-making workshop in a local primary school, which led to a little showcase procession down the one-street village, which sparked notions of a small street party, which then blew up into the inaugural community harvest Cur le Chéile Festival in September 2024 – is one (simplified) but glorious example! 

Street Party Cur le Chéile Festival.
Photo: Niamh O Shea. 

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The Agencies
The second critical objective of our Creative Places programme in year one is related to developing effective working relationships with the local embedded community development networks and also with the state and semi-state agencies who have responsibilities for implementing development programmes in the Uíbh Ráthach area. We have seen that there are significant efficiencies, synergies and increased value propositions which can be delivered by partnering with these agencies. Over the past year we have, for example, worked with the health agencies to deliver the first stage of an arts and health based social intervention; in partnership with the Irish language agencies we delivered a range of high quality arts experiences and events; we partnered with community development group Forbairt na Dromada to host an international theatre production which examined shared links with other Celitc minority language regions ;  we worked closely with the Uíbh Ráthach Task Force and with the national Think Thank for Action on Social Change (TASC) on an integrated arts research residency project based on exploring new approaches to local housing provision.⁴ This work will be integrated into TASC’s forthcoming research report concerning ‘A Just Transition for the Uíbh Ráthach peninsula’. 

Working proactively and collaboratively with key community stakeholders to harness and integrate artistic skills and capabilities across a full spectrum of community interests will be a key part of the enduring legacy of the programme in Uíbh Ráthach.  In improving the skills base amongst the community of artists, in helping to build institutional capacity, in generating an excitement around the delivery of broad based arts provision, and by illustrating the social good which can be delivered through these methods, we are planning for a future that is about extending the impact of Cumas Ceantar/Creative Places beyond the timeframe of the programme. 

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Tá obair iontach ar bun le Cumas Ceantar Uíbh Ráthaigh leis an dtalann atá le fáilt in Uíbh Ráthach a chothú agus a spreagadh chomh maith le deis a thabhairt do dhaoine dul i ngleic le saothar ealaíontóiri ó áiteanna eile, b’fhéidir ná bheadh aon chur amach acu orthu murach Cumas Ceantar. Tá Cumas Ceantar ag cur go mór le forbairt phobail in Uíbh Ráthach ó thaobh chúrsaí teangan de, go healaíonta agus go sóisialta leis. Séaghan Ó Súilleabháin, Oifigeach Pleanála Teanga Chathair Saidhbhín.

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Over this first year of the Creative Places programme, the Artists and the Agencies became the pragmatic framework around which we built our programme of work. It is prudent to expect that as we go deeper into the process, the obstacles and the push- back may become more onerous, the extent to which arts- based socially engaged strategies can be productively applied to the deeper social issues in this area of disadvantage will be tested. We are developing new and effective methods to capture, monitor and evaluate this process and our progress through it.

Renewed Optimism
The Creative Places R+D period, and the preparatory work which it facilitated, was a critical element in giving this programme the best chance for success. The structure of the national Creative Places programme in allowing for the design of a responsive, hyper-local work programme, unique to each area which received the Creative Places award, is also very important. 

During the R+D period, I spoke to a woman who told me that her only hope for her young adult son’s future remaining in this community was for him to find more and more ways of being social and being creative with others. 

The Creative Places programme is one strand of a range of state, semi-state and local development interventions which are currently being deployed in Uíbh Ráthach. Many  such initiatives have been tried before. Optimism does not come easily. But the arts can sometimes resuscitate and foster this transformative emotion. What can an investment in socially engaged arts do for this area? On the Uíbh Ráthach peninsula it may be about improving the odds for the greatest number of people to enjoy a sense of renewed, communal optimism through engagement with whatever artistic, social, and creative means of expression that may inspire them, for the longest time. 

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1. The term ‘Gaeltacht’ is used to describe the regions in Ireland in which the Irish language is, or was until recently, the primary spoken language of the majority of the community.

2. A 2023 report on the demographic and socio-economic profile of Uíbh Ráthach may be accessed here.

3. A summary account of the approach and  process as it was rolled out in Uíbh Ráthach may be accessed here.

4. The Uíbh Ráthach People’s Transition Project: A research brief for artists.

Cumas Ceantarur