“Over the past 5 years Creative Ireland has enriched the lives of so many communities and individuals in County Cork. It creates a pathway to a wide range of creative activities right on our doorstep, connecting people and encouraging everyone to discover their inner creativity .” Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Danny Collins. The County of Cork is home to a wealth of culture and heritage and a most impressive means of expressing this through a number of creative cultural outputs. The Creative Ireland Programme seeks to put culture at the heart of everything we do, and provides the County of Cork a great opportunity to enhance and further promote and encourage the cultural undertakings of the County.

Creative Ireland allows for creativity in approach with regards to the culture that we love and how we can foster it, express it and even identify priority areas that should be focussed on. In the County of Cork, this focus is underpinned by the County’s Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018-2022, built on the vision:

To realise the full cultural and creative potential of every person within the County; where our culture becomes us and we, as one Countywide Community, become our culture’s greatest asset; where we know our past; embrace the present and trust in the future that we are creating together.

The Strategy has 6 key objectives and over 60 actions, which were chosen with culture and creativity in mind, following extensive consultation and community involvement. Through a range of different initiatives, including the pop-up shop scheme and the Creative Ireland County Cork Grant Scheme, Cork County Council has been in a position to support over 150 different projects and events, across all of the aims of the strategy.

Culture inspires all of us and it is hoped that the Creative Ireland Programme in the County of Cork will have long lasting effects for the growth and indeed love of culture within the County. By working together and by enhancing our culture, it will benefit our people, places and everything in between.