As 2024 draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on all our projects this year, and thank all the participants and audiences that have engaged with us, as well as all our funders, partners and supporters.
Overview & Projects
We worked with a total of 1063 young people in projects all over Wexford, Dublin and Waterford, and engaged over 800 audience members. Our projects this year all ran in line with our vision of providing high quality contemporary circus and dance experiences and training to all communities, including and especially to marginalised ones. We worked on short term and long term projects in international protection accommodation centres across the south east- Wexford and Waterford, as well as South County Dublin and Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown, with thanks there to support from Creative Ireland South Dublin County Council and Creative Ireland Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. We also were lucky to work with the local travelling community and settled community in Taghmon, thanks to the Taghmon Family Resource Centre, with the travelling community in Enniscorthy thanks to Creative Places Enniscorthy and the FDYS, and with the travelling community in Whitechurch thanks to Creative Ireland South Dublin, and logistical support from Foróige. We were also delighted to work with the resettled Syrian programme refugee community in Enniscorthy, with thanks to Creative Places Enniscorthy and logistical support also from Wexford Local Development, and are looking forward to continuing all this work in 2025.
Circus Clubs & Youth Ensemble
Our Circus Clubs ran weekly in Wexford and Dublin, with our Youth Ensemble training also weekly, and the Dublin based clubs performed their 2nd youth-led creation in Tallaght Theatre in June 2024 to standing ovations. We also enjoyed running our creative circus summer camp in Dublin for the 3rd year since relocating to Ireland. Members of the Youth Ensemble also enjoyed visiting the amazing Circusful in Belfast, as well as watching Motionhouse perform their inspiring Wild as part of Belfast International Arts Festival, and are ready and excited for further trips and projects planned for 2025.
Schools & Collaborations
We were also happy to continue working with schools across the country, especially long-term with the special education school St Peter’s in Dublin, thanks to their visionary director Rosemary Fahy. We also delivered dozens of workshops in mainstream and special primary and secondary schools across Dublin and the South East of Ireland and look forward to more upcoming in the New Year. We also enjoyed collaborating with the National Opera House for Science Week 2024, thanks to the Education Officer at the NOH and to SETU. Thanks also to ISACS for supporting the Cruinniú na nÓg workshops throughout the country that we were happy to deliver in the lead up to Cruinniú 2024. We are also grateful to the Courthouse Tinahealy and the wonderful Kate at Kunstverein Aughrim for inviting us to collaborate on Craic in the Granite Festival in June 2024.
Rí Rá Festival of Children’s Arts 2024
This year was the inaugural year of Rí Rá Festival of Children’s Arts, a new festival created along with the wonderful Creative Producer Laura Larkin and Technical Manager James Blake, thanks to funding from the Arts Council of Ireland and Creative Places Enniscorthy. We were delighted to form, as part of that, a truly inspiring Children’s Panel from diverse communities all over county Wexford who participated in activities leading up to and during the Festival, connecting with other young people they may not otherwise meet, while informing decisions for the programme in 2024 and 2025. The Festival itself involved workshops and performances by artists from Argentina, Italy, Ireland and Norway, and engaged hundreds of young people and their families, thanks to our partners at Blackbird Cultur Lab, Wexford Arts Centre, the National Opera House, Presentation Arts Centre, and the 1798 Rebellion Centre.
New Accreditations, CPD & Contributions
We were delighted to also become an accredited organisation this year by Rambert Grades in Creative Dance for Early Years, and we were also very happy to continue working with The Ark, also in international protection settings across Dublin. We are also very grateful to the Ark for providing us with CPD opportunities in 2024, and are looking forward to more upcoming mentoring, workshops and CPD sessions in 2025. Thanks also to the South East Venue Network for their support for our Artistic Director Fadi Zmorrod in 2024, and for all the upcoming projects that have evolved from that support. Thanks also to the Arts Council of Ireland for supporting our General Manager and dance artist Juliet Zmorrod in her new research into work for very early years, also upcoming in 2025. Our Artistic Director Fadi Zmorrod was also happy to speak at various events this year, including at Visual Carlow for the Arts Council of Ireland, at the Hawk’s Well Theatre in Sligo for Apartheid Free Arts at Performing Arts Forum, in Wexford for SpringMoves Festival, and in Kilkenny at the Watergate Theatre for the SEVN network. Fadi was also happy to deliver training of trainers in social circus again in 2024. Thanks also to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding our meetings with international partners in Europe this year and into 2025 also.
Cruinniú na nÓg 2024
We were also delighted to hold our Cruinniú na nÓg event in June in Dublin this year, thanks to Creative Ireland South Dublin, which was the culmination of a longer-term project working with members of the refugee, travelling and local community in South Dublin, which again was a project in line with our overall vision and strategic plan.
Conclusions
We would like to sincerely thank every person, young and not-so-young, who engaged with us in 2024. You all give us hope for a better world, free of hate and full of creativity. We would also like to reiterate that we all must use our voices, our platforms and our consumer choices to end the genocide in Palestine and change the reality that our colleagues, friends and family are living for 2025.