Four schools in Kilkenny  to join Arts Council Creative Schools initiative 

The Arts Council announced today that offers have been made to 186 schools and centres across Ireland who applied to be part of the Creative Schools initiative. The very high level of applications to be part of this 2-year process reflects the importance that schools and youth-reach centres place on creativity and their ambition to celebrate and put creative thinking at the very heart of what they do. 

Among those schools invited are four in Kilkenny – Bunscoil McAuley Rice, Scoil Mhichíl Naofa (Crosspatrick NS), Mother of Fair Love Special School and SN Mhuire gan Smál Graignamanagh .

Participation empowers children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools/centres and stimulate additional ways of working which reinforce the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being. 

Speaking today at the announcement Director of the Arts Council Maureen Kennelly said: “We warmly welcome our new cohort of 186 schools to Creative Schools. We are delighted that demand for the programme is so strong across the country and we are thrilled to say that by this stage of the programme, 20% of schools in Ireland have connected with us. Working with our partners in the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Creative Ireland, we are looking forward to another school year full of creativity, consultation and exploration”. 

Creative Schools received applications from counties throughout the country to be part of the initiative and they were assessed on how Creative Schools would benefit learning and development in the school and how children and young people would play a central role in leading the process.  

The programme was established in 2018 and more than 650 schools have been invited to participate to date. With this latest round of offers, 1 in 5 schools in Ireland will be taking part in the Creative Schools initiative. Recipients range from large schools in major cities to smaller schools on islands including Inisboffin, Achill, Inis Oírr and Inis Meain. Creativity truly lives everywhere.  

Schools who have been taking part to date have explored creativity in all its forms and embraced how it can be celebrated in diverse ways. From baking to creating and designing gardens, from photography to performance, from working with other community groups to transforming areas of their own schools, the impact of Creative Schools can be seen around the country.