DROICHEAD ARTS CENTRE KEEPS BUSY
Droichead Arts Centre doors maybe closed at the moment however their creativity and community continues despite the restrictions.
The arts centre, which is celebrating its 30th year, has been working on their summer arts programme behind the scenes and has been exploring different ways that they can work on planned programmes. They want to continue to provide opportunities and support for partnership, to showcase work, and commission new work.
Droichead has launched #DroicheadConnects, a programme of online activity over the summer including Droichead’s Youth Focus Group Film Project for young film makers between the ages of 12 – 22. Droichead Youth Focus Group is designed to look specifically at the needs and interests of young people aged 15-20. The purpose of the group is to advise on programmes that interest young people, to propose new initiatives, means of communication, and to be a consistent youth perspective for the Centre
Collette Farrell, Director, Droichead Arts Centre commented “One of Droichead’s core strategic aims is to support the work and development of artists in the North East Region, and to engage with audiences and communities of all ages, and it is important that we continue to do so at this difficult time.”
“We want to give young film makers the opportunity to showcase their talents. They may have something filmed and not finished or they might like to create a new film for the project (adhering to all social distancing guidelines of course). Quite often some of the most interesting productions are those that embrace limitations”
Young film makers can enter in three age categories 12- 14, 15 – 18, and 19 – 22 and they can create their films on their smart phones, using GoPros and whatever video camera they have, edit footage on their phones or fire up Windows Movie Maker. An animated film is also an option - there’s lots of free animation software available so film makers could try their hand at animating, or maybe stop-motion animation.
To enter, film makers just need to upload their work to Youtube or Vimeo and email the link to collette.farrell@droichead.com with their name, age, and title of film. Films can be up to 5 mins in length.
Selected films will be shared on Droichead Arts Centre’s Instagram and other social media platforms by the youth focus group every month, at which point we will also host a discussion around the films. The audience choice for best film monthly will receive a €100 voucher for a retail outlet of their choice. The first round of entries should be submitted by Thursday, 4 June. Launch date is 13 June in association with Creative Ireland as part of #CruinniúnanÓg 2020.
While we encourage fun and creativity for all our entrants, HEALTH AND SAFETY is most important. To that end, we advise film makers follow all health and safety Covid 19 guidelines for their film projects including social distancing, limiting their cast to people who they live with. If that’s not possible, have cast members film themselves separately and then send their footage.
#DroicheadConnects programme is available for free and Droichead continues to support and pay our artists. If you would like to make a donation towards future programming you can give as little as €2 https://www.droichead.com/products/
Jim Hayes is INM Regionals Group Editor. Subscribe to a local ePaper at independent.ie/localnews