[ Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028, Section 15(2) Two-Year Progress Report ]
Cork City Council recruited a Public Art Manager to resource an expanded programme of public art in the city. A project was commenced to coordinate and identify all public art budgets across existing and planned capital projects in support of progressing this outcome and in readiness for new National Public Arts policy. Refurbishment works to public art installations include Saurian by Jim Buckley in the Lee Fields and Reedpod by Eilis O’Connell on Lapps Quay (for completion Q3, 2024). See also Objective 7.25 above in this report for details on ‘Island City - Cork’s Urban Sculpture Trail’, a trail of five contemporary sculptures in the city centre island and the largest single investment in public art in Cork city to date, funded by Fáilte Ireland under the Urban Animation Scheme. Cork City Council also established a partnership with Arts and Disability Ireland that will pilot accessibility proofing art in public realm through the Island City sculpture trail. The outdoor performance programme, in collaboration with 7 local authorities between Q3, 2023 and Q3, 2024, included training webinars for organisations and groups on how to run outdoor events. A showcase programme at Elizabeth Fort coincided with Cork World Book Festival and the publication of a guidance resource for cultural producers. A flagship event is the annual St. Patricks Day Parade with an annual audience in city centre of approximately 55,000 with 3,200 parade participants. Cork City Council expanded the St. Patricks Day offering in 2024 to become a weekend festival of events. The Council also introduced the Community Artist in Residence in 2023 to support the artistic quality of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The Cork Christmas Festival was relaunched as Corkmas in 2023 along with SOLAS, an interactive, immersive festive light experience in the public realm at Emmet Place. Strategic Priority 4: A City for Artists This priority seeks to advance the culture and conditions that make Cork a city for artists. As an outcome of the actions listed below, artists are supported to develop and make work of quality, scale, ambition and criticality, have the knowledge, skills and professional relationships that increase their capacity to build sustainable careers, and there is a framework to advance the potential of Cork’s creative industries to expand and diversify arts and cultural production and employment opportunities.
Artists were directly supported to develop practice and make new work through 62 direct grants allocated in bursaries and project grants since the adoption of the arts and culture strategy
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