May - West Cork Arts Centre

Off-site, WCAC is involved in projects
throughout West Cork with Day Care
Centres, Active Retirement Associations
and significantly the Community
Hospitals.
In 2002 a partnership was set up to
develop an arts and health programme
for residents of long-stay units in
the community hospitals. Today, this
programme now supports three artists
working weekly in the five community
hospitals - Castletownbere, Schull,
Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Skibbereen -
and in Bantry General Hospital.
The introduction of the arts into health
care settings is for the benefit of the
users of the hospital and the wider
hospital community including staff
and visitors. The overall aim of Arts
for Health is to establish the arts as a
core element of the work of healthcare
settings.
Essentially this programme is about
improving the quality of life for people
in residential care and providing essential
cultural engagement. One of the
participants commented ‘It is an hour
of pure pleasure as far as I am concerned…this
is what you look forward
to all week’
Another off-site project is Talking Lips
Carnival. WCAC received an award
from the Arts Council to commission
artist Melissa Baker to develop her
artistic practice in West Cork. Melissa’s
work is highly influenced by her interaction
with the community, in this
case she has worked with participants
at West Cork Day Care Centres to
explore changes in communication
technology. In parallel to the way an
individual can retransmit him or herself
today via the telephone and internet
(Facebook, etc); Melissa, mirroring this
process, retransmits the oral history of
a social group. The resulting performance
is an interpretation of this oral
transmission that is both entertaining
and visually appealing. The piece allows
for interaction with the audience
during the performance.
WCAC Partners supporting the Programme
for Older People are; West
Cork Adult Education Services, Cork
County Council, Health Service Executive,
Ealaín na Gaeltachta and West
Cork Older People’s Network .
Image above: Arts for Health, Schull Community Hospital, Irish Rose by Tim Sullivan, 2009
Below l-r: Arts For Health, (detail), Dunmanway Community Hospital; Arts for an Active Mind, WCAC