Community Connections
Community Connections shares learnings from projects where cultural leadership has been connecting organisations through song in pursuit of care.
Ideas about collaborative creation have deep roots in the soil of Irish life: Meitheals, drama group’s annual pantos, and rambling house trad sessions where great times are made by all players and virtuosi, these all weave together culture and creativity with community and health.
This attitude is apparent in Irish choirs and singing groups, estimated to be more plentiful than chip shops, they are great levelers of status, whose currency is enthusiasm and, perhaps with the exception of conductors, spaces of democratic multi-voiced creation.
During 2020 singing on online platforms has attained the level of artform. At the same time by working locally and across agencies, people uncovered ways for older adults to remain creative and socially connected. Often this creativity built around song. Exploring song or the elements of singing, or building on trust and relationships built pre-covid through singing, has offered ways that organisations can collaborate in the interests of individual care. Asking “What might we want to keep after Covid?” offers new engagement strategies for arts organisations, and prototypes for community health care professionals.
Guidebook 3: Community Connections
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