Culture Night is an annual all-island public event that celebrates culture, creativity and the arts. On Culture Night, special and unique events and workshops are specifically programmed at participating locations and everything is available free of charge.
This year, Culture Night will take place on Friday 22nd September and it will be Cork County’s seventh year participating in Culture Night. More information about Culture Night can be found on our website: www.culturenightcorkcounty.ie/information.
Why take part?
Aside from being a fantastic event, Culture Night can have a lasting impact on communities. Culture Night has:
● Proven to be a wonderful opportunity for new and established groups to build a profile for themselves and the work they do
● Provided a valuable platform to reach new audiences
● Made it easier for people to play a role in their local cultural scene
● Helped create a sense of community and belonging
● Provided opportunities for networking between local organisations, groups and artists
Events can range from something as simple as hosting a storytelling event, organising an exhibition, to more complex events such as concerts, dance performances or parades, all of which reflect the diversity of culture in County Cork.
Interested in taking part?
To participate in Culture Night your event and venue has to be free to the public and take place between 5pm-11pm on Friday September 22nd .
The deadline for registering your interest is Friday June 30th and you can do so by contacting Leah at culturenightcorkcounty@gmail.com or 021 427 6891 ext 6971.
The deadline for the receipt content and images for our printed programme is 5pm on Friday, July 7th 2017. Event information received after this date cannot be included in the printed programme but will be listed on culturenightcorkcounty.ie and culturenight.ie.
Please give us details of your proposed event through this online form. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any difficulties or questions. Please also send three images to culturenightcorkcounty@gmail.com to help us promote your event. The images could include photographs of the exterior or interior of the building, an activity taking place or a performer or artist relevant to the event. The images should be in JPEG format, at least 300 dpi and a maximum of 5 MB in size if you are emailing them. If they are larger than 5MB, please contact culturenightcorkcounty@gmail.com and we will provide you with an alternative way to submit your images.
What role will Cork County Council Arts Office play?
Leah Hearne has been contracted by Cork County Council’s Arts Office to coordinate Cork County Culture Night 2017 in partnership with Ian McDonagh, the Cork County Arts Officer, and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The Arts Office will compile all information for the countywide programme. We are here to help and will provide a targeted PR campaign to ensure public awareness of these events at a local, regional and national level as well as marketing support through the Culture Night Cork County website, National Culture Night website, social media, print programme and distribution.
Funding opportunity for collaborative projects
This year, we would be particularly excited to see participants collaborate, plan and work together on Culture Night events with other organisations, community groups, venues, artists or performers. These types of collaboration leave a lasting positive impact on communities. A few examples of how this might work could be:
● A professional artist collaborating with a community/voluntary group
● A community choir working together with a craft group to deliver an Arts and Wellness workshop in their community
● A few organisations/groups banding together to create a unique, larger-scale Culture Night event in their area
● Arts and cultural groups working together with other special interest groups in the community (residents of a nursing home, sports teams, school groups, special needs groups) to plan an exhibition or event
● Etc!
Dependent on funding from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the Cork County Arts Office is hoping to provide some financial support to such special events which exemplify this collaborative spirit.
