Applications open for Experience 2025: An Introduction to Arts, Health & the Older Person

Applications open for Experience 2025: An Introduction to Arts, Health & the Older Person

Applications have opened for Experience 2025: An Introduction to Arts, Health and the Older Person. This half-day learning programme for artists and arts practitioners of all disciplines takes place online this year, on Thursday 4 December, from 2pm-5.30pm  Experience 2025 will aim to outline the essential elements involved in working with older people in an arts and health context, and will feature presentations by some of the most experienced and inspiring practitioners working in this specialised field of practice, including Keynote Speaker Dr Anne Basting.  Experience 2025 is presented by Age & Opportunity, the national organisation working to enhance wellbeing for older people, and Réalta, the national resource organisation dedicated to developing arts + health in Ireland.  Further details below.  Places are limited to 30 and cost €10.00 each and will be allocated to suitably qualified/ experienced individuals on a first come, first served basis.  Experience 2025 is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE. This is the fifth year of Experience, which was devised in 2021 in response to the need for more training and practical orientation for artists and arts practitioners of all disciplines who already have experience of participatory work in a health context, and who are interested in developing their practice to include working with older people.  Participants over the last four years have described the programme as “tangible, well-paced, relevant”; “profoundly encouraging and inspiring”, “refreshing and far-reaching”; “calm and inclusive”; “full of great advice and ideas”; and “so well put together, beyond what I imagined,” with people highlighting the expertise and passion of the speakers, and the opportunity to interact with fellow artists. In...
Réalta to facilitate Arts + Health Thread at Creative Brain Week 2025

Réalta to facilitate Arts + Health Thread at Creative Brain Week 2025

A rich seam of mature practice exists in Ireland connected to an expanding international movement promoting art as a health-positive activity.  Ireland has leadership status in this area, but can it sustain it?  What patterns emerge over time?  What can this teach a wider audience? As part of Creative Brain Week 2025, over three days Réalta will lead a discussion themed Arts and Health: An Irish Timeline, which will explore creative work as transformation or transaction, apprenticeship, the cultural ecosystem and the ability of Ireland’s rich tradition of arts + health to collaborate meaningfully with its health and care services. The discussion will be facilitated by Claire Meaney, Director of Réalta and Emma Eager, Réalta Project Co-ordinator and Project Manager of artsandhealth.ie, with contributions from Justine Foster (Arts for Health Partnership Programme West Cork) and Mary Grehan (Children’s Health Ireland Arts in Health Programme), on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 June respectively. The backdrop to this discussion will be a timeline of arts + health development in Ireland, created by Justine Foster, which explores the development of the Arts for Health Partnership Programme West Cork, in the context of national and international advancements in arts + health.  The timeline will be organic and will be added to following each day’s discussion.  It is hoped that reviewing arts + health through the lens of this timeline will enhance understanding and inspire discussion on the future direction of this exciting field of practice. Arts and Health: An Irish Timeline is part of the Threads programme at Creative Brain Week 2025, which sees cluster groups exploring topics through cross-disciplinary and inter-agency dialogues....
Update: Arts + Health Check Up Check In 2025 full programme published!

Update: Arts + Health Check Up Check In 2025 full programme published!

Réalta is pleased and excited to publish the full, packed programme for this year’s Arts + Health: Check Up Check In.  Click this link: Arts and Health Check Up Check In 2025 Programme and we look forward to welcoming you to Tullamore on Wednesday 30 April. Tickets for the full day, including a Hearty, Not Arty lunch, cost €30.  Book your place here Arts + Health: Check Up Check In is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE, and in 2025 is supported by Offaly County Council and Esker Arts....