Our new generation celebration
Ireland is creating new opportunities for children, writes John Meagher
LORRAINE COMER is keen to dispel a notion that might still persist among some parents. Museums are not like they were in the past, foreboding places where children were best seen and not heard. Today’s museums are there to fuel the creativity of the country’s young people — and from the earliest age.
The National Museum of Ireland strives to be as child-friendly as possible — and that means specially commissioned works to appeal to children, as well as historical artefacts they can feel with their own hands.
It’s an ethos espoused by Creative Ireland Programme, one in which culture and the arts should be accessible to all — and children are fundamental to that, a fact underscored by Ireland’s new national day of creativity, Cruinniú na nÓg on June 23.
Comer, head of education for the NMI — which constitutes the Archeology, Decorative Arts & History and Natural History museums in Dublin as well as the Country Life museum in Co Mayo — says great efforts have been made to make these museums child-oriented.
“Our programmes include one-off events like workshops and tours, and long-term projects, and all take place in our four museum sites located in Dublin and Mayo,” she says. “We also do outreach work with young people.
“Visiting a museum for a child and young person can be an experience that stays with them for the rest of their lives. Children can connect, understand, innovate and explore perceptions and feelings. Museums are spaces for creativity, enjoyment, experimentation, innovation and reflection.”
Such sentiments are music to the ears of Rosaleen Molloy, the nation-
al director of Music Generation. Co-founded by U2, the initiative seeks to make music accessible to all children, irrespective of their abilities. “All children are inherently musical,” she says, “and Music Generation aims to provide tuition and exposure to music to as many children as possible.”
Until Music Generation came along, music tuition was only available to 1pc of Irish secondary school children. “Not only do we want to reach as many children as we can, but we want to make it as cheap as possible for them and their families too,” she says. She insists, nurturing creativity through music is not just about traditional ideas of piano lessons and exams — it could be having a professional musician meet with children to help improvise a new song.
Molloy argues that music is fundamental to driving children’s creativity and helps fuel both educational and holistic aspects of their lives. “Since Music Generation was founded we’ve seen many children who may not otherwise have been exposed to music in this way really embrace the joys of making music.”
Fuelling creativity from an early age is something that young writer Orán McCormack-Grant knows plenty about. He was one of the winners of the Hot Press – Creative Ireland Programme Write Here, Write Now competition and he first started writing down stories at eight years of age.
“I had finished reading a book at bedtime,” he recalls of that first foray into creative writing, “and although the ending was good, I felt it should have been different. I was complaining about how the story ended all weekend, so I decided to create my own version of the ending I wanted, and once I finished I was able to put that book aside and move on to the next.
“When I write, I can get away with almost anything, like getting a message across to someone who gets on my nerves… it’s an escape to a different world where you rule, you lead the pen and the words are your followers.”
Meanwhile, creativity comes in all guises, as Dublin secondary school student Sam Gorman Cooke can testify. He is on the committee of the Dublin City branch of Comhairle na nÓg and it’s fired his imagination when it comes to awareness campaigns for issues affecting his peers.
“My first year on the committee we made a video to raise awareness for problems for children, both inside and outside the education system,” he says. “The next year we did a project on youth homelessness, made a video and held an event in Smock Alley [theatre].”